Immunosuppresive Drug Coverage
More drug coverage for end-stage renal disease—Medicare beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease previously lost their benefits 36 months after a kidney transplant, unless they were otherwise eligible for Medicare. But now they can apply for immunosuppressive drug coverage through a new benefit called Medicare Part B Immunosuppressive Drug, or Part B-ID, which started January 1, 2023.
The premium for this benefit is $97.10 per month in 2023. This benefit covers only continuous immunosuppressive drugs, and these beneficiaries cannot have other health coverage.
Partnership for Part D Access
There has been minimal activity with the Partnership’s activities as the US Legislature tries to resolve the budget and debt ceiling escalations.
The Partnership continues to work with its congressional champions to sponsor another non-binding resolution of support in 2023 for the Partnership’s goals.
TRIO continues to play an active role in all the monthly meetings.
Upcoming Reports
We are looking forward to sending out two articles in the very near future covering important topics.
The first article will discuss COVID vaccines for now and the future. There is a great deal of medical and pharmacological research occurring concerning the future of vaccines and vaccinations as the understanding grows that COVID will continue to be around for a very long time.
The second article will discuss the issue of kidney recovery and utilization. There will be an article on how the kidney recovery process works and how kidneys are chosen for use in transplantation. There is much work going on in the transplantation community about how to increase the number of kidney transplants every year; this article will focus on what’s happening!