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Medicare Drops the Ball on New Mail-Order Pharmacy Rule for Part D Members

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Medicare drops the ball on seniors

I recently posted two articles about a new Medicare Part D rule that affected beneficiaries who get their medications delivered on a regular basis from a mail-order pharmacy. The rule, which went into effect on January 1, required all pharmacies with home delivery services to get direct consent from Part D plan members before shipping each and every medication.

Today I have some good news to share: The enlightened folks at Medicare have decided that — surprise, surprise — this new rule did not work as intended. Last week, much to our relief, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rescinded the rule.

Full details are still pending, but as of now, you do not need to give your pharmacy permission to ship the medications you regularly receive by mail. It’s probably not quite as simple as this, so if I hear more, I’ll let you know.

If you’re still not familiar with the rule I’m referring to, I’m not surprised. Medicare did a very poor job communicating the details of the rule with Part D plans and beneficiaries.

In a nutshell, the rule required pharmacies to get consent from the plan member (by phone or online) every time the member’s doctor submitted a new prescription or a refill on an existing prescription was ready to be shipped. If the pharmacy didn’t get the member’s consent, it could not ship the medication. No consent, no medication. Period.

As soon as I heard about this rule back in November, I knew it was a recipe for disaster. This rule, I thought, had the potential to create a serious safety issue for seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries. I was right.

Without guidance and communications from Medicare, Part D plans and their members were left in the dark. I tried to provide clear information about the rule for our plan members, but even I found it too complicated to fully understand and explain.

By the first week of March – just two months after the rule went into effect – hundreds of thousands of prescriptions were being held up in mail-order pharmacies throughout the country. Medicare beneficiaries didn’t receive the medications they needed because they didn’t know about the rule or understand how to provide consent. I’m sure many people were very worried and confused when their medications didn’t arrive in the mail on time as expected.

So as I let out a huge sigh of relief, I have something to say to CMS: You really screwed up on this one. By not providing clear communications to Part D plans and members about this complex rule, you created a major safety issue for seniors. You didn’t think it through and consider all the logistics and implications. You dropped the ball and left it up to Part D plans and pharmacies to put it back in play, even though you didn’t provide the rules of the game.



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