Durbin Works to Ensure Illinois Seniors Enrolled in Medicare Part D Have Access to Their Local Pharmacies

DURBIN WORKS TO ENSURE ILLINOIS SENIORS ENROLLED IN MEDICARE PART D HAVE ACCESS TO THEIR LOCAL PHARMACIES

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined a bipartisan group of senators in calling on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to conduct a review to ensure that rural Medicare Part D beneficiaries in Illinois and across the country are assured access to local community pharmacies.

In a bipartisan letter to the HHS Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson, Durbin and more than 30 senators wrote: "Medicare beneficiaries in rural areas often have only one pharmacy available to them. In many instances, the next closest pharmacy is ten, if not twenty, miles away. We know that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) analyzed the pharmacy networks submitted by prescription drug plans. We are concerned, however, by reports that even though plans' networks meet the standards, some beneficiaries in rural areas still face difficulties in using their prescription drug benefit at a conveniently located pharmacy."

Durbin said, "Many seniors in Illinois have relied on their community pharmacists for years, but now they are forced to travel out of town or across the county to get their prescriptions filled. Seniors should not be expected to drop their local pharmacists as a price of enrollment in Medicare Part D. That is an unacceptable price to pay."

With more than 25,000 independent community pharmacies across the nation, the senators also raised concerns about the level at which these local pharmacists are being reimbursed under Medicare Part D. "Pharmacists have informed us that in many cases, reimbursements fall well below their costs, which will undermine the long-term viability of local pharmacies and the MMA goal of ensuring beneficiaries' access to them," the senators wrote.

http://durbin.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=256619&&