Medical Xpress January 19, 2026
A new study examines the potential impact of the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan (M3P)—an opt-in policy implemented in 2025 under the Inflation Reduction Act that allows beneficiaries to spread out-of-pocket (OOP) costs over the calendar year—on Medicare Part D beneficiaries with cancer who face high out-of-pocket (OOP) prescription drug costs.
Many cancer patients enrolled in Part D incur thousands of dollars in OOP expenses at the start of the year to quickly reach the catastrophic coverage threshold, after which cost-sharing drops to zero. For patients living on fixed or limited incomes, these large upfront payments can be unmanageable, contributing to delayed treatment initiation, medication nonadherence, financial distress and poorer health outcomes.
Using Medicare 2022 claims data from a national sample...
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