Doughnut Hole Question: What happens when we buy our prescriptions or medications in advance? For instance, what occurs if we buy a three-month supply of medication through mail order?
Answer:
The Coverage Gap or Doughnut Hole arrives at different times for each person based on monthly retail prescription costs.
If you purchase your medications on a three month basis, the Doughnut Hole will most likely arrive earlier than with monthly purchases.
Quarterly purchases may also affect when you leave the Doughnut Hole.
You can enter different values in the
Doughnut Hole Calculator and see the different results.
For instance, enter the prescription costs of $800 dollars per month and compare the results with to when you would instead pay $2400 on a quarterly basis.
In the first case, ($800 per month), you would enter the Doughnut Hole in April and come out in July.
If you spend $2,400 in the first month, you would enter the Doughnut Hole in February and also come out of Doughnut Hole in July.