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Advising the Congress on Medicare issues
MedPAC > Recommendations > Improving Medicare Part D (2)

Improving Medicare Part D (2)

June 15, 2016

The Congress should change Part D’s low-income subsidy to:

  • modify copayments for Medicare beneficiaries with incomes at or below 135 percent of poverty to encourage the use of generic drugs, preferred multisource drugs, or biosimilars when available in selected therapeutic classes;
  • direct the Secretary to reduce or eliminate cost sharing for generic drugs, preferred multisource drugs, and biosimilars; and
  • direct the Secretary to determine appropriate therapeutic classifications for the purposes of implementing this policy and review the therapeutic classes at least every three years.

Appeared in: June 2016 - Chapter 6

Topics: Beneficiaries and coverage and Drugs, Devices, and Tests.