Medicare Prescription Drug Plans See Enrollment Surge

KENNEBUNK, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new report from Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) found stand-alone prescription drug plans (PDPs) gained more than 800,000 covered lives between February 2010 and February 2011, a 4.5% increase year-over-year. PDPs covered more than 18.5 million people as of February 1, 2011. In comparison, PDP plans gained only 92,560 net new members, a mere 0.5% gain between February 2008 and February 2009. Humana's co-branding initiative with WalMart appears to have stimulated this sluggish growth market.

For the 70 organizations competing in this segment as of February 2011, the increase was welcome after previous increases of 1.2% between 2009 and 2010 and a mere 0.5% between 2008 and 2009. The percentage of Medicare beneficiaries served by PDPs fell from a high of nearly 40% in 2008 to 38% in 2010, but sidled back to nearly 39% in 2011. Together PDPs and Medicare Advantage plans cover 64% of the 47.7 million people eligible for Medicare in 2011, up from 60% in 2008.

According to Mark Farrah Associates' report, Humana, the second largest PDP insurer, lost more than 1.367 million members between 2008 and 2010, but gained nearly 568,000 new PDP members between 2010 and 2011. Humana's co-branding strategy with WalMart was successful in increasing membership. The Humana WalMart-Preferred Rx Plan (PDP), available to Medicare Part D eligible beneficiaries nationwide, enrolled nearly 809,000 members as of February 2011. This new product appears to have been the spark that accelerated growth in the PDP market.

In the latest Healthcare Business Strategy report, MFA aggregated and analyzed enrollment and other data for all PDPs nationwide. To read the full text of "PDPs See Enrollment Surge" visit the Healthcare Business Strategy library on Mark Farrah Associates' website www.markfarrah.com.

About Mark Farrah Associates (MFA)

MFA is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry. Committed to simplifying analysis of health insurance business, our products include Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™, Health Coverage Portal™, Health Insurer Insights™ and Health Plans USA™.

Contacts:
Mark Farrah Associates
Debra Donahue, 207-985-8484