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Medicare Copay ‘Smoothing’ Plan Shows Nothing Is Simple In Part D

 
• By Michael McCaughan

Guidance on how to implement a new policy to permit Part D beneficiaries to pay high copays in monthly installments (rather than all at once at the pharmacy counter) shows that there is no such thing as a straight-forward change in the drug benefit program.

part d
• Source: Shutterstock

One of the many changes in the US Medicare Part D prescription drug program enacted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act is intended to make it easier for beneficiaries with very high-cost prescriptions to afford their co-pays by permitting monthly installments rather than demanding collection of the whole cost at the time of dispensing.

The provision for smoothing out monthly co-pays did not get a lot of attention as part of the broader bill,...

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