Medicare Drug Plan Formulary
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Until Medicare became a part of your life, formulary was a term you probably had never heard of. Depending on your prescriptions this term is very important. The drug plan’s formulary is the plans preferred list of drugs. The medications you take need to be part of the drug plans formulary. If a plan does not accept a brand name drug that you are on in their formulary than your costs for that drug will be higher or not covered at all. In the case of seizure disorders changing medications or brands related to your plans preference may not be in the best interest of your health. You need to choose a plan that has your medications in its formulary or will make exemption for them.
Generic Drugs
Generic is the brand of choice for prescription drug plans. This is because of the decreased cost for these medications. If a drug plan can get you to change from a name-brand medication to a generic they can save themselves thousands of dollars a year. For many prescriptions the difference between generic and name brand does not affect their efface.
Name Brand Drugs
Name brand drugs are higher in cost than their generic counterpart. A name brand drug may be manufactured differently with different inert ingredients or different coatings. These differences are not noticeable to most people. Some medications work very differently in a person depending on their manufacturing process. If you are one of those people that a name brand medication performs better than a generic it is extremely important that you insure that your choice of drug plans includes this medication in the form that works best for you.
Medicare Drug Plan Exclusions
Some plans will make exclusions if you can prove that the brand name medications you use are the only ones that have been successful with your symptoms. They may require you to try other drugs or a generic version of that drug. Another less expensive medication may not work as well or at all for you. There are times that the difference in inert chemicals in a drug will enhance your own body’s use of that medication. Another form of exclusions is centered on the dispersement time for a medication. Many times a shorter acting medication, that may require more doses, is cheaper than a timed or slow release form of the medication. For most people this may just be a matter of inconvenience but for others the continuous release of the medication will control symptoms that an equivalent dosage of the medication given at specific time intervals will not.
Medicare Drug Plan Profit
A drug plan’s goal is to make a profit while providing a service. If using tiers or requiring generics can reduce the cost of providing name brand medications a plan will do so. The drug plan projects its service costs on the cost of their formulary and of the preferred pharmacy charges. The plan must make a profit or it will go out of business. The cost of different plans is directly related to their pharmacy choices and their formulary.
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