December 5, 2019
Part D Formularies. Be sure to check our online formulary tool before prescribing medications for your Premera Medicare Advantage (MA) patients. We’ve removed and added new medications for our 2020 plans. Also, some of the cost share tiers for certain medications have changed. You can find links to all our pharmacy tools on the Medicare Advantage site.
Network Pharmacy. All 2020 Premera MA plans will use the same pharmacy network. Encourage your patients to check our MA find a pharmacy tool before filling their prescriptions to avoid higher out-of-pocket costs. CVS Caremark will continue to be the mail order pharmacy for 2020.
Preferred Blood Glucose Monitors and Strips. Our preferred vendor for blood glucose meters and strips is the same as last year. Premera MA members who stay on their plans can remain on their current meter and strips. New Premera Blue Cross MA members using non-preferred blood glucose meters and test strips will need to change to our preferred brand to be covered. To help your patients avoid additional out-of-pocket costs or a lapse of care, we ask that you help transition new Premera MA members to our preferred brand as soon as you can.
Preferred Insulin Products. Our preferred insulins for 2020 are the Novo Nordisk products (i.e. Novolin, Novolog, etc.). Patients impacted by this change will receive addition information on this change in November.
Changes to Part D Supplemental Benefit for Over-the-Counter Coverage. Last year, a few of our plans covered certain generic over-the-counter allergy medications. These were filled by a pharmacy and billed to their Part D plan. For 2020, we’re moving to an over-the-counter supplemental Part C benefit which will permit members to receive up to $50 per quarter for specific over-the-counter medications and supplies via a mail order provider. This program will cover many generic over-the-counter allergy medications plus additional items listed in this online catalog. More information on this benefit including the plans offering OTC Part C coverage for 2020 is available on our website.