Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act Of 2003

Commentary

Prescription Drug Shortages: Reconsidering the Role of Medicare Payment Policies

The focus on the MMA as a primary cause of prescription drug shortages is premature and may deflect attention away from identifying other potentially more important causes, write Mireille Jacobson, Abby Alpert, and Fabian Duarte.

Journal Article

Sources of Regional Variation in Medicare Part D Drug Spending

Regional variation in Medicare Part D spending for prescription drugs results largely from differences in the cost of drugs selected rather than prescription volume.

Journal Article

Geographic Variation in Physicians' Responses to a Reimbursement Change

Although there has been considerable discussion of how the changes that the ACA makes in Medicare reimbursement might affect Medicare spending, on average, there has been little to no explicit recognition that the effects may vary geographically.

Journal Article

Using Matched Survey and Administrative Data to Estimate Eligibility for Medicare Part D Low Income Subsidy Program

This article uses matched survey and administrative data to estimate, as of 2006, the size of the population eligible for the Low-Income Subsidy (LIS), which was designed to provide "extra help" with premiums, deductibles, and copayments for Medicare Part D beneficiaries with low income and limited assets.

Report

Questionable Estimates of Eligibility for Low-Income Subsidies Under Medicare Part D

In 2003, Congress added a prescription drug benefit to the Medicare program known as Part D and a Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) for some Part D beneficiaries. About 29 percent were eligible for the LIS in 2006 but there is considerable uncertainty around this estimate.

Research Brief

Electronic Prescribing Systems: Making It Safer to Take Your Medicine?

RAND Health researchers convened an expert panel that created a set of 60 recommendations for electronic prescribing systems.

Journal Article

E-prescribing and the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003: Paving the On-Ramp to Fully Integrated Health Information Technology?

To optimize the return on Medicare drug spending, the government should consider additional incentives to spur the uptake of more advanced systems.

People

Erin Audrey Taylor