Medicare Prescription

Some practices utilized by brand firms to delay generic competition have been the target of recent FTC and legislative actions. One concern was the practice of listing several new patents late in the product life cycle in an apparent effort to trigger successive 30-month stays to delay generic competition. To prevent this practice, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 limited each branded product to one 30-month stay (Padden and lenkins 2004). 

Kaiser Family Foundation. 2005. Prescription Drug Coverage for Medicare Beneficiaries A Summary of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003. AvaUahle at www.klf.org/medicare/6112.cfm. Last accessed November 5,2005. 

In the near future, government policies may be less supportive of the pharmaceutical industry than in the past. In the Bush administration, Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt and FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach opposed federal efforts to negotiate lower prices for Medicare prescription drugs and to allow reimportation of prescription drugs at lower prices. In the Obama administration, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, and FDA chief deputy Joshua Sharfstein will likely change these policies. New laws and policies may do more to favor consumers. 

Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of2003... 

January 1 The new Medicare prescription benefit program goes into effect. 

The Medicare Prescription Drug Program aims to keep prices low by having private companies compete for participants. Critics say the government should intervene directly by setting price controls rather than relying on the market. This article discusses the pros and cons of both approaches. 

Under the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act 2003 (use 2003), however, the U.S. government was specifically prohibited from using its bulk buying power for Medicare beneficiaries to negotiate medicines prices on cost-effectiveness grounds. Section 1123 of the legislation also commissioned a study by the USDoC. 

MTM movement has been especially strengthened by language in the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 (Public Law Number 108-173), which mandates payment for MTM services and proffers pharmacists as viable health professionals who may offer such services. As such, MTM is now considered a key component in the provision of pharmacy care services. 

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