The June, 2016 Medicare Part D plan formulary data (or drug lists) includes the addition of
32 new National Drug Codes (NDC) to the Medicare Part D program. These NDCs represent 23 different drugs, many with multiple strengths.
A special note about the new generic for the brand-name drug Gleevec®
Imatinib Mesylate, the generic for the cancer medication
Gleevec was recently added to many 2016 Medicare Part D formularies. For example, in California,
23 stand-alone Medicare Part D plans now cover the generic
Imatinib Mesylate (100 mg) and
28 stand-alone Medicare Part D plans cover the brand-name
Gleevec (100 mg).
Unfortunately, the retail price for the generic is not much different (less) than the brand-name Gleevec medication. Retail prices in California for generic Imatinib Mesylate range from
$1,743.11 to
$2,847.72 , while retail prices in California for brand-name Gleevec range from
$2,792.26 to
$2,869.96 - depending on the chosen Medicare Part D plan. As a comparison, in September 2010, the monthly retail price for Gleevec was around
$1,260.
Cost-sharing for either the generic or brand-name medication can range from 25% of retail to 33% of retail. And, because of the generic or brand-name drug's high retail cost, the second monthly purchase will place you in the Donut Hole and the third or fourth monthly purchase will mean that you are through the Donut Hole and in the Catastrophic Coverage portion of your Medicare Part D plan and will pay 5% of the retail cost for the remainder of the year.
What are National Drug Codes or NDCs?
As a reminder, 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 as follows:
Reason for NDC Addition |
Occurrences |
New Delivery Form |
4 |
New Drug |
2 |
New Drug and Strength |
11 |
New Manufacturer |
1 |
New Manufacturer and Delivery Form |
1 |
New Manufacturer and Strength |
6 |
New Manufacturer, Strength and Delivery Form
|
1 |
New Strength |
4 |
New Strength and Delivery Form
|
2 |
Total New NDCs |
32 |
The following chart details the 32 new manufacturer / drug / strength / packaging combinations (NDCs) that were added to one or more Medicare Part D formularies in the most recent updates. You can click on the 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.
You can review any Medicare plan formulary using the Q1Medicare.com FormularyBrowser at
Q1Medicare.com/FormularyBrowser or compare how any medication is covered on all Medicare plans in your service area using our
Q1Medicare.com/DrugFinder.