Our Yearly Survey Results

Last week we held a Facebook Live event that reviewed our yearly Medicare Part D prescription program satisfaction survey. Almost from the beginning of the implementation of Part D, the Healthcare Leadership Council, through its Medicare Today coalition, has conducted a yearly satisfaction survey to determine how Medicare’s Part D program is doing. The results of this yearly survey continue to be very positive, in fact the satisfaction level went up in this year’s survey. You can see a summary of the results of the survey here.

Morning Consult, an award-winning Decision Intelligence company, conducted our satisfaction survey. In our Facebook Live event, Matt Monday from Morning Consult and I reviewed the results and discussed the possible impacts of the recent changes to Medicare Part D. I’ll offer a short recap below, but you can click here if you’d like to see the entire event.

I started the review by pointing out that the Inflation Reduction Act, often called IRA, contains policies that seniors said they opposed if it interfered with their Part D plans. I did mention that IRA did contain a good change which limited the yearly out-of-pocket costs that seniors pay for prescription drugs but, unfortunately, it did implement government-controlled price controls which would slow biopharmaceutical innovation. I voiced that this is an example of how lawmakers often ignore seniors’ input on healthcare issues.

I went on to say that the survey showed that seniors remained highly satisfied with their Part D plans, which is not surprising given their access to safe affordable drugs for even the most serious healthcare issues. The survey showed that seniors were happy with the choice and flexibility of their plans. I highlighted the fact that Part D has overperformed from the beginning, coming in 40% below projected costs while premiums remained stable.

I did mention that the new legislation put a six percent cap on yearly premiums causing me to think lawmakers feared the new IRA policies would increase Part D premiums, forcing them to put in some protections so it wouldn’t scare seniors too much.

I then got off my soap box and welcomed Matt Monday to go over the survey in more detail.

Matt started by telling us that the survey was conducted at the end of June and they questioned over 1,000 seniors who have Part D insurance. The survey focused on their satisfaction with their Part D insurance, the perceptions they have around their coverage and the potential impacts of government price setting of prescription drugs. Matt pointed out that many of these survey questions are tracked over many years, making the resulting trends very compelling.

There were four main findings:

1. 88% of seniors were satisfied with their Part D coverage which continues the year over year trend.
2. Two out of three seniors felt a peace of mind that they were covered and nine out of ten felt their coverage was convenient to use.
3. 90% agree that they have access to affordable prescription drugs and that their costs would be higher without Part D.
4. Four out of five seniors said that government price setting would impact access to medicines and reduce choice and options.

At this point I took the opportunity to ask a few questions.

My first question was whether there were any increases or decreases in the satisfaction rates this year from prior years? Matt pointed out that often, when a program has high satisfaction rates, the rate begins to fall. This just hasn’t happened with Part D over the years. Satisfaction rates have stayed consistently high. I pointed out that the many choices in Part D plans have enabled seniors to choose a plan that fits them, which adds to their overall satisfaction.

I then asked Matt if seniors thought their plans were affordable or do they find it difficult to afford their coverage? He replied that nine out of ten seniors find their plans convenient and affordable. I mentioned that, with over 8% inflation, the premium price for Part D is projected to go down next year, which begs the question, why do politicians feel the need to fix something that’s not broken.

I next asked Matt if the survey gave any insight into why the satisfaction level has stayed so consistent? He replied that they didn’t specifically ask that question but there were some metrics they could look at. He said that seniors value that their doctors have options and choices and have access to the drugs they need. They don’t have to jump through hoops or have fail first requirements to satisfy. These all lead to maintaining a high satisfaction level. I pointed out that the VA formulary has about half the number of drugs on their formulary as Part D showing how broad the Part D coverage is.

Next, I asked Matt what most concerned seniors about government interference in Part D? He replied that he thought it had to do with access and their fear that the government would interfere with the doctor patient relationship. It also worried me that this new law would restrict innovation such that I might not have access to a drug that would have helped me because it wasn’t discovered due to the new law.

This led to the next question concerning how worried were seniors about the possible reduction in innovation? Matt replied that seniors were not only concerned about their access to medicines they have now but also equally concerned with the medicines they may not have in the future. 82% are concerned about access to newer prescription drugs and seven in ten were worried that government price setting would lead to less research and development. I pointed out that we are on the verge of many new discoveries, and it concerned me that the new law would hinder this research.

I then asked if there were any other options the government had concerning drug prices? Matt said they used a 1 to 10 scale to see how acceptable other drug pricing options were. These questions centered around,

• keeping out-of-pocket costs low
• increasing transparency
• maintaining predictability

Keeping out-of-pocket costs low – Putting a cap on out-of-pocket costs scored 8.3, a very high score.

Increasing transparency – Garnered a score of 9.02, the highest of any option.

Maintaining predictability – The ability to spread their costs over the year so their costs were predictable scored 7.38, also a high score.

I talked a little about the new IRA legislation and the many implementation details that haven’t been defined, which means that we need to be vigilant in our understanding and advocacy. The devil is in the details and we can have a voice in eliminating the devil that hurts our access and affordability. Matt pointed out that the increased predictability will be extremely important given the impact high inflation is having on fixed income seniors.

I then thanked Matt and Morning Consult for their work and closed the event.

This yearly survey is very important in tracking how seniors feel about Medicare Part D. It is another way for Seniors to Speak out.

Best, Thair