Inflation Reduction Act may save drug costs for older patients at high CV risk
NEW ORLEANS — Medicare beneficiaries at high CV risk spending more than $2,000 per year in out-of-pocket drug costs could save a median of $855 per year under the Inflation Reduction Act, researchers reported.
An analysis of the potential impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August, on out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries with CVD or CV risk factors was presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session and simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“High and rising prescription drug costs in the United States contribute to medication nonadherence, poor outcomes and financial toxicity,” Rishi K. Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, section head of health policy and equity at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told Healio. “As a result, addressing prescription drug costs has become a national priority. In response to these concerns, federal policymakers recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to address high out-of-pocket drug costs for adults enrolled in Medicare through several provisions.”
“One major provision of the Inflation Reduction act is to place a $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs. Another provision will expand eligibility for full low-income subsidies to individuals that reduce deductible costs and prescription copayments. We wanted to estimate how these provisions will impact Medicare beneficiaries with cardiovascular risk factors and/or disease,” Prihatha R. Narasimmaraj, MD, a research fellow at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research, told Healio.
The analysis included a weighted population of 34,056,335 Medicare beneficiaries with at least one CV risk factor and/or condition, of whom 1,020,484 had out-of-pocket drug costs of more than $2,000 per year.
The odds of experiencing out-of-pocket drug costs of more than $2,000 per year were lower for adults aged 75 years or older compared with adults aged 65 to 74 years (adjusted OR = 0.67; 95% CI, 0.49-0.93) and for low-income adults compared with higher-income adults (aOR = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.45-0.89), according to the researchers.
Under the annual spending cap of the Inflation Reduction Act, the median savings of out-of-pocket drug costs for beneficiaries spending more than $2,000 per year in out-of-pocket drug costs will be $855 per year (interquartile range, 356-1,795), Wadhera and colleagues found.
The total estimated annual savings of out-of-pocket drug costs will be $1,723,031,307 (standard error, 91,150,609), according to the researchers.
“Another 1.3 million beneficiaries with cardiovascular risk factors and/or disease will become newly eligible for full low-income subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act that further reduce out-of-pocket costs,” Wadhera told Healio. “Our study suggests that the Inflation Reduction Act could have major implications on out-of-pocket prescription costs for higher-risk patients with cardiovascular risk factors and/or disease, which could eventually translate into fewer cost-related barriers to medication adherence, less financial strain and better health outcomes for patients.”
Other provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act could further reduce out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, including “a cap on out-of-pocket costs for insulin and the ability for Medicare to start negotiating prices for drugs,” Wadhera told Healio.
Reference:
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Narasimmaraj PR, et al. Abstract 1080-05. Presented at: American College of Cardiology Scientific Session; March 4-6, 2023; New Orleans (hybrid meeting).
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