This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Aging/ Geriatrics  • Medical Practice, Other  • Drug Therapy, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic

Navigating the "Doughnut Hole" With Patients

Scott A. Berkowitz, MD, MBA; Gary Gerstenblith, MD; Gerard F. Anderson, PhD

JAMA. 2007;297:868-870.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Mrs Smith is one of more than 22 million Medicare beneficiaries who enrolled in the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit in 2006.¹ She was happy finally to receive some prescription drug coverage, but when she visited the pharmacy in October, she was shocked to discover she had reached a gap in her prescription drug plan, the so-called doughnut hole. For the remainder of 2006, she was responsible for 100% of her drug expenditures until she spent $3600 in out-of-pocket fees. It was estimated that between 3 million² and 7 million³ Medicare beneficiaries would enter the "doughnut hole" with Mrs Smith in 2006 and it is likely that a similar number or more will in 2007. Because coverage including the doughnut hole differs from other types of prescription drug coverage, this patient will once again confront difficult clinical . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Medicare Part D Benefit and the Doughnut Hole

Author Affiliations: Schools of Medicine (Drs Berkowitz, Gerstenblith, and Anderson) and Public Health (Dr Anderson), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

The Effect of the Medicare Part D Prescription Benefit on Drug Utilization and Expenditures
Yin et al.
ANN INTERN MED 2008;148:169-177.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT