The most recent (end of May 2012 ) Medicare Part D plan formulary data (or drug lists) updates include the addition of 58 new National Drug Codes (NDC) to the Medicare Part D program.
The NDC uniquely identifies a particular drug, manufacturer, strength, and packaging combination. The NDC is often shown on your prescription bottle as an 11-digit code (see the charts below) or could be formatted as 00000-0000-00 where the first set of numbers identifies the manufacturer, the second set of number identifies the product and strength, and the third set of numbers identifies the packaging.
There are many reasons for NDCs to be added to the Medicare Part D program, a summary is a follows:
Reason for NDC Addition |
Occurrences |
manufacturer switched |
1 |
new delivery |
2 |
new drug |
8 |
new drug/strength |
19 |
new manufacturer |
11 |
new manufacturer & ER version |
3 |
new manufacturer/form |
3 |
new manufacturer/strength & ER |
1 |
new strength |
6 |
new strength/delivery |
1 |
new XR version |
3 |
The majority of the 58 new NDCs included new drug strengths or manufacturers. In some cases, the new NDCs are replacing the Graceway Pharmaceuticals' medication NDCs that were dropped from the May 2012 data (see second table below).
The following 58 manufacturer / drug / strength / packaging combinations (NDCs) were added to one or more Medicare Part D formularies in the most recent (May 2012) updates. You can click on the NDC or Drug Name below to go to our Q1Medicare.com DrugFinder to see the details of how this drug is handled by all Medicare Part D Plans in Florida -- You can then change the state to your state for details in your service area.
In addition, 16 manufacturer / drug / strength / packaging combinations (NDCs) were dropped from the Medicare Part D program:
NDC |
Drug Name |
00093725101 |
FEXOFENADINE HCL 30MG TABLET |
00378075501 |
FEXOFENADINE HCL 180 MG TABLET |
29336020025 |
METRONIDAZOLE VAGINAL GEL 0.75% |
29336030102 |
Minitran 2.5mg/d 30 PATCH in 1 CARTON / 1 d in 1 PATCH |
29336030202 |
Minitran 5mg/d 30 PATCH in 1 CARTON / 1 d in 1 PATCH |
29336030302 |
Minitran 10mg/d 30 PATCH in 1 CARTON / 1 d in 1 PATCH |
29336030402 |
Minitran 15mg/d 30 PATCH in 1 CARTON / 1 d in 1 PATCH |
29336030510 |
TAMBOCOR 50mg/1 100 TABLET in 1 BOTTLE |
29336030710 |
TAMBOCOR 100mg/1 100 TABLET in 1 BOTTLE |
29336031410 |
TAMBOCOR 150mg/1 100 TABLET in 1 BOTTLE |
29336054006 |
Norflex 60mg/2mL 6 AMPULE in 1 BOX / 2.0 mL in 1 AMPULE |
29336061012 |
ALDARA 5% CREAM |
29336071028 |
ZYCLARA CREAM |
29336081521 |
Maxair Autohaler 200ug/1 400 INHALANT in 1 INHALER |
51079052920 |
FEXOFENADINE HCL 60 MG TABLET |
65726014435 |
AXID 150MG PULVULE |
Note: 12 of the 16 dropped NDCs listed above were manufactured by Graceway Pharmaceuticals (29336).
In addition to the above major additions and deletions, individual Medicare Part D plan formularies may have added and/or dropped medications, changed drug tiers, and changed drug usage management requirements. You can review any Medicare plan formulary using the Q1Medicare.com FormularyBrowser at
Q1Medicare.com/FormularyBrowser.