How Is Part D Working for You? APA Wants to Know

Irvin L. “Sam” Muszynski, J.D., director of APA's Office of Healthcare Systems and Financing (OHSF), is concerned that APA members are being pressured into prescribing drugs for their Medicare patients that they think are less than optimal because of access restrictions imposed by Part D drug plans. He wants APA members to know that OHSF has been very successful in working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to ensure that patients with Part D coverage get the medications they require. Since Part D prescription drug plans are supposed to provide access to all or substantially all antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anticonvulsants, APA members who have patients encountering problems with access to drugs in these categories should contact APA's Managed Care Help Line at (800) 343-4671.

The only way APA can successfully ask that Medicare make necessary systemic changes to Part D, noted Muszynski, is if OHSF can provide CMS with data showing those parts of the program that are not working. So please let us hear from you. Not only will your patients benefit, but so will the patients of your colleagues.