Getting the Best Price: Lessons Learned From the Medicare Discount Card Program

October 10, 2005 Getting the Best Price: Lessons Learned From the Medicare Discount Card ProgramThe 2003 Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) created a Medicare prescription drug program that is being implemented in two phases. The first phase, a temporary discount card program, began in June 2004 and ends in January 2006 when the second phase, the drug benefit, begins. For both the discount card program and the drug benefit, the MMA bars the government from negotiating directly with drug companies to obtain discounts on prices. Instead, contending that the lowest prices would be achieved by unleashing the forces of competition, congressional . . .