Protecting Medicare Part D’s Extra Help program

For about 11.8 million Medicare Part D low-income beneficiaries, the Extra Help program lowers or waives patient premiums and deductibles while reducing cost sharing for individual prescriptions. This helps patients access needed treatments and improves medication adherence, which can help lower overall Medicare spending by avoiding hospitalizations, emergency room visits and other costly medical procedures.

With the Medicare open enrollment period now underway through December 7, 2015, beneficiaries can evaluate their plan choices and make changes based on their individual needs; we offered 3 things to keep in mind when picking a Part D plan on our blog.

Unfortunately, some are considering harmful changes to the Medicare Part D Extra Help program that would hurt the most vulnerable beneficiaries and jeopardize their access to needed medicines. As a critical part of Part D, the Extra Help program should be valued and protected in order to care for the millions who rely on it to help them live longer, healthier lives.  

In our latest Conversations forum, PhRMA asked health experts how patients benefit from the Extra Help program.

Head over to the Conversations page to see what they had to say and join the discussion online using #HealthPOV.