According to the 2/3/15 Kaiser Health News (KHN) report, Aetna’s errors and omissions in providing prospective and existing Medicare subscribers with accurate network Pharmacy information has affected 400,000 individuals.

The inaccurate and confusing information can affect the individual’s actual cost of their medications as well as potentially ending subscribers’ relationships with their preferred pharmacist and most convenient pharmacies. As a result, the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is offering Aetna subscribers to either select a participating pharmacy that meets their needs or use a special enrollment period through February 28, to disenroll from Aetna and enroll in another Part D prescription drug plan.

Aetna, like a number of other insurers, has established a pharmacy benefit program that utilizes their size and national clout to drive hard deals with drug companies and pharmacies. They want to reduce their cost in exchange for offering a higher volume of business with less competition to their preferred drug companies and pharmacies.

Insurance companies through Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBM) establish a complex structure of classifying drugs in different classes or tiers with associated co-pays or co-insurances and then add different restrictions such as requiring deductibles,prior authorization, step-therapy and quantity limit for subscribers.

Aetna’s program is a little more complex than other insurers in that they have a limited number of network pharmacies (especially local vs. national) that are grouped into either standard pharmacies and  a smaller number of preferred pharmacies. They also operate their own Aetna Rx Home Delivery pharmacy.

Aetna does offers subscribers choice for the meds and pharmacies that they use, but at a very high price. To illustrate, in the Aetna Medicare Premier PPO plan offered in Rochester, NY, if you want to use a “non-preferred brand” name medication on Aetna’s list of approved meds you will have to pay 50% of the cost for a 30 day supply vs. $45 for a “preferred brand”. Your co-pay for a 90 day supply of a “preferred generic” will be $8 (80%) more at a “standard” vs. ‘preferred” pharmacy and your co-pay for a 90 day supply of a “non-preferred generic” will be $18 (180%) more than a “preferred generic’ medication. Each insurance company through their PBM choses which drugs to include/exclude and in what tier and co-pay/co-insurance. These decisions vary among companies and are only subject to broadly written Medicare rules.

While Aetna has made a major push to expand their presence in the national Medicare Advantage market for 2015, they have not been ready for last year’s Fall Medicare open enrollment period. They heavily advertised and marketed their zero premium “Premier” plan but I have witnessed and heard numerous consumer complaints about their call centers and website regarding the accuracy of participating doctors and hospitals and being very slow in establishing provider contracts.

Hopefully Aetna will learn from this year and make changes in their plans that are responsive to seniors needs and priorities.