Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Coverage: Federal Oversight of Reported Price Concessions Data

September 30, 2008 To help Medicare beneficiaries manage the rising cost of prescription drugs, Congress passed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), which established the outpatient prescription drug benefit known as Medicare Part D. The benefit was first available in January 2006, and that year it provided federally subsidized prescription drug coverage for nearly 28 million beneficiaries at a cost of $47.4 billion almost 12 percent of total Medicare spending. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), manages and oversees the Part D . . .