Former CMS chief Mark McClellan on Medicare Part D and prescription drug

Mark McClellan has contributed his first analysis of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program since resigning last October from his post as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), where he was responsible for the program's introduction (Marketletters passim).

As a visiting senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute/Brookings Institute's Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, Dr McClellan has co-authored a policy fact sheet with colleagues from other conservative-oriented think-tanks on the effects on drug prices of the Part D program for seniors, as well as the potential of additional government intervention. The paper: Medicare Part D and Prescription Drug Prices, is published by the AEI and is available on the group's web site (www.aei.org).

The report presents responses to six questions about the operation of the senior citizens' benefit, many of which are pertinent to the contemporary policy debate about Medicare reform (Marketletters January 15 and 22).