Medicare Stand-Alone PDP Membership Up 1.8% According to Mark Farrah Associates

Managed Care Weekly Digest

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- In the latest Healthcare Business Strategy report, Mark Farrah Associates (MFA), www.markfarrah.com, aggregated and analyzed year-over-year enrollment data for all stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs) nationwide. Stand-alone PDPs enrolled 25.1 million people as of March 1, 2017, an aggregate increase of 1.8%, or approximately 443,000 net enrollees, from March 1, 2016. The percentage of Medicare eligibles served by PDPs dropped from 43.6% in March 2016 to 43.2% in March 2017. Enrollment from employer group plans was approximately 4.4 million, a decline of 80,000 members year-over-year, while enrollment in products sold to individuals increased by over 540,000 to 20.3 million (see also Mark Farrah Associates).

Six companies control 87% of the PDP market, covering one million members or more. CVS Caremark, UnitedHealth and Humana top the list with each serving over 20% of all PDP enrollees. Humana experienced the most sizeable growth amongst the top six PDP carriers with a year-over-year increase of 367,000 members, or a 7.8% gain. However, CVS Caremark enrolled the most members with 5.5 million PDP beneficiaries, a 4.6% gain, from March 2016 to March 2017. Stand-alone PDP enrollment increased in most states as of March 1, 2017 with net membership gains of approximately 460,000 members nationally. Texas and California experienced the most significant enrollment gains in March of 2017 with Texas enrolling 72,000 more PDP members from the prior year.

For the purpose of this analysis, it's important to note that MFA did not include the 17.3 million members currently receiving prescription drug coverage through their Medicare Advantage plan. To read the full text of "Medicare PDP Enrollment Covers over 25 Million Members", visit the Analysis Briefs library on Mark Farrah Associates' website. About Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) MFA is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry. Committed to simplifying analysis of health insurance business, our products include Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, Health Coverage Portal™, County Health Coverage™, and Health Plans USA™. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170405005078/en/

Keywords for this news article include: Medicare, Health Policy, Mark Farrah Associates.