The most recent (end of June 2012 ) Medicare Part D plan formulary data (or drug lists) updates include the addition of 20 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 |
new drug |
3 |
new drug/strength |
10 |
new manufacturer/form |
3 |
new manufacturer/drug/strength |
4 |
The majority of the 10 new NDCs included new drug strengths and in some cases manufacturers. Three new generic alternatives were introduced:
- ESCITALOPRAM generic equivalent for Lexapro® is on 65 PDP and 214 MAPD formularies
- IBANDRONATE SODIUM generic equivalent for Boniva® is on 55 PDP and 170 MAPD formularies
- ZIPRASIDONE HCL generic equivalent for Geodon® is on 70 PDP and 238 MAPD formularies
The following 20 manufacturer / drug / strength / packaging combinations (NDCs) were added to one or more Medicare Part D formularies in the most recent (June 19, 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 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.
Changes to the Top Medicare Drugs: