Health Policy Seminar
“Anticipated Differences in Spending with the Inflation Reduction Act: A Focus on People with Cancer”
Aryana Sepassi, PharmD, MAS, is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences. Previously, she served as faculty at the University of California, Irvine. Using her expertise in clinical pharmacy, outcomes research, and health economics, Dr. Sepassi's research mission is to improve healthcare accessibility for immigrants and racial/ethnic minorities in the United States by generating empiric data that accomplishes three main goals: 1) to identify socioeconomic disparities and their contributions among immigrants and racial/ethnic minority groups that prevent access to high-quality healthcare; 2) to quantify the harmful effects of discriminatory health policies; 3) to aid in the development of cost-effective interventions to bridge gaps and improve care. Her research has been funded by the American Cancer Society, the Arthritis Foundation, and the National Cancer Institute with NIH.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 aims to improve the affordability of outpatient prescription drug spending for older adults with Medicare Part D coverage by implementing a "cap" on out-of-pocket spend at $2,000 per year, starting in 2025. High out-of-pocket costs for cancer drugs are a concern for Medicare Part D beneficiaries with cancer, with some reporting spending approximately 23.7% of household income for cancer costs alone. The novel IRA Part D "cap" may potentially alleviate financial toxicity for these beneficiaries, but it is unknown to what extent this effect might be. This talk will present the development of an algorithm to estimate expected out-of-pocket Part D costs with the IRA, what those expected costs might be, and how beneficiary out-of-pocket spend may change throughout the year with the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan.
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm ET
Zoom Link: https://wellforce.zoom.us/j/96...
Passcode: 940719
