This spotlight focuses on the use of specialty tiers in Medicare Prescription Drug Plans for high-cost and injectible drugs. It finds that the number of plans with specialty tiers has nearly doubled since 2006. It also looks at the drugs assigned to specialty tiers, the beneficiary cost sharing structure, and policy implications such higher out-of-pocket expenses and selection issues among beneficiaries who evaluate plans based on cost sharing.

This spotlight is one in a series analyzing key aspects of the Medicare Part D drug plans that will be available to beneficiaries in 2008. Each of the spotlights in this series were prepared by a team of researchers at Georgetown University, NORC and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

 Data Spotlight (.pdf)