Here are five insights:
1. The increase in spending will raise the insurance cost for all beneficiaries, whether or not they have the liver-wasting viral disease.
2. New cost estimates indicate that Medicare’s popular prescription drug program will spend $9.2 billion on hepatitis C drugs this year, a 96 percent increase from $4.7 billion in 2014.
3. Medicare’s economic analysts say hepatitis drugs have become one of the main cost drivers for the prescription program. Without the hepatitis C medications, costs per beneficiary would have risen by 4.6 percent. Instead, the growth rate will be considerable higher, around 7.9 percent.
4. In 2016, the prescription program’s standard deductible is going up by $40 to reach $360, the largest increase in the deductible since the inception of the Part D deductible ten years ago.
5. The pressure of cost is expected to ease next year, partly due to competition from more medications entering the market.
More articles on GI & endoscopy:
Gastroenterologist to know: Dr. Kulwinder Dua of the Medical College of Wisconsin
5 most read GI/endoscopy stories: April 4 – April 8
Dr. Douglas Pleskow co-authors book on Barrett’s esophagus: 4 points
