Is anybody listening? Humana announces doubling of profits From Medicare Part D as seniors in Doughnut Hole pay full drug prices

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- While many seniors are stuck in the middle of the doughnut hole without Medicare drug coverage, paying their monthly premiums and 100% of the cost of drugs, Humana announces its profits more than doubled from its Medicare Part D plans. The Association of Community Pharmacists Congressional Network (ACP*CN) is troubled that Congress continues to sit back and watch pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and private health insurers, like Humana, continue to run away with taxpayers' money at the expense of real savings to America's seniors.

"The administration said there wasn't enough money to fund the Medicare drug benefit unless Congress created a doughnut hole or no coverage period where seniors paid 100% of the drug cost," said Mike James, Vice-President, Governmental Affairs, ACP*CN. "As PBMs and private insurers trickle out these earnings reports each quarter, bragging about huge profits borne from offering Medicare D coverage, the benefit looks more and more like a very profitable giveaway to the drug companies and drug insurers," concluded James.

Humana reported its third quarter profits more than doubled increasing to $159.2 million up 64% per share compared to $46.8 million a year ago. The country's second largest provider of Medicare D plans said revenues from the third quarter 2006 rose 48% to $5.65 billion from $3.82 billion in the third quarter of 2005. "These increases were primarily the result of higher enrollment in the company's Medicare Advantage plans and new 2006 revenues from stand-alone Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) for Medicare beneficiaries," noted Humana.

Members of Congress should be ashamed of these boastful earnings, which are reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and ultimately American taxpayers. Seniors are struggling to pay for their medication costs and independent pharmacists across the country are struggling to keep their doors open because PBMs and other private insurers are under reimbursing pharmacies for Medicare D prescriptions.

This cash strain has forced pharmacists to take out lines of credit approaching and sometimes exceeding $100,000 to keep their doors open and care for patients. If Congress doesn't act soon to give pharmacies some negotiating power against drug insurers, patient access to neighborhood pharmacies will be severely reduced, as pharmacists are forced to close their doors.