Medicare enrollees paid far more for drugs than plan sponsors did in 2021, GAO says

Medicare ben­e­fi­cia­ries paid four times more for pre­scrip­tion drugs than their plan spon­sors did in 2021, ac­cord­ing to a Gov­ern­ment Ac­count­abil­i­ty Of­fice (GAO) re­port on Medicare Part D drugs.

The GAO writes in the re­port, pub­lished Tues­day, that ben­e­fi­cia­ries paid $21 bil­lion for pre­scrip­tion drugs in 2021, while plan spon­sors on­ly paid about $5.3 bil­lion, ac­cord­ing to the study of 79 of the 100 Part D drugs with the most re­bates.

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