The most recent (August 2014) Medicare Part D plan formulary data (or drug lists) updates include the addition of 87 new National Drug Codes (NDC) to the Medicare Part D program. These NDCs represent 58 different drugs, many with multiple strengths or delivery forms.
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 Delivery Form |
1 |
New Drug |
23 |
New Drug and Strength |
33 |
New Manufacturer |
10 |
New Manufacturer and Delivery Form |
1 |
New Manufacturer and Strength |
9 |
New Packaging
|
3 |
New Strength |
7 |
Total New NDCs |
87 |