On
September 9, 2020, U.S. Senators Bob Casey and Elizabeth Warren released a
report entitled “Rapidly Increasing Postal Service Delivery Delays for
Mail-Order.” The report focuses on recent operational changes made
at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and concludes that “there have been
significant delays in USPS deliveries of mail-order prescription drugs in
recent months, potentially posing serious health risks to millions of Americans
and increasing costs for consumers and taxpayers.”
At
the same time that there has been a 20% increase in prescription drugs filled
through mail-order during the pandemic, there have been “significant and
increasing delays in the delivery of mail-order prescription drugs in the summer
of 2020.”
According
to the press release accompanying the report,
All
four of the largest mail-order pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)
that rely heavily on USPS for deliveries revealed that they were experiencing
significant delays in the delivery of mail-order prescription drugs in the summer
of 2020, with an increase in average delivery times ranging from 18-32 percent.
This means that prescription deliveries that typically took 2-3 days were
instead taking closer to 3-4 days. Some delays were much longer, with one
mail-order pharmacy reporting “a marked increase in July in the number of
patients experiencing shipment delays of seven days or more.” The Senators’
investigation also found that the delays in USPS service are imposing new costs
and burdens on health care providers, which could increase costs to the federal
government, consumers and taxpayers.
The
report cites to several consumer advocacy organizations, including the Center
for Medicare Advocacy. According to the Center “[t]he current COVID-19 public
health emergency has had a disproportionately harmful impact on older adults,
and necessitates minimizing contact with other people. As more people avoid
picking up their drugs and supplies at pharmacies and other places of business,
older adults and individuals with disabilities are even more dependent upon the
Postal Service to provide a bridge to the outside world.”
- Read the Center’s full letter to Senators Casey and Warren at
https://medicareadvocacy.org/center-letter-re-impact-of-postal-service-delays-on-medicare-beneficiaries/
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