US Medicare drug benefit keeping seniors out of hospital

PharmaTimes Online today reported the results of a new study which showed that the US Medicare prescription drug benefit has boosted medicines use among seniors, improved their adherence to essential drug treatment and reduced their out-of-pocket drug costs.

The study estimates that savings to Medicare resulting from Part D have averaged around $12,000 a year for each older person with previously inadequate prescription drug coverage, or around $12 billion a year in total.

Because of the prescription drug benefit, seniors can afford medications which lower their cholesterol and blood pressure and control their diabetes without the need for hospital treatment, and they can also now receive drug therapy more cheaply at a doctor's office rather than in hospital, the results show.

"Spending on one type of service can reduce spending on another type of service. By expanding Medicare to include drug benefits, clearly we're spending more, but we're getting a lot of value out of that spending," the Associated Press reports Dr McWilliams as commenting.

The authors say that these new findings echo earlier study results which have suggested that wider use of, and adherence to, medication achieved through expanded drug coverage for seniors is linked to lower spending on non-drug medical care.