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.