The Obama administration has dropped plans to change the Medicare prescription drug program amid criticism from industry, patient advocacy groups and lawmakers that the changes would limit seniors’ access to certain medications and choice of plans. CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner wrote in a letter to Congress Monday that she was shelving changes proposed in January that could have loosened the requirements that Medicare Part D insurance plans cover a broad range of drugs in six “protected classes” of medications. Since the start of Medicare’s prescription drug benefit in 2006, the government has required insurers to cover “all or substantially all” drugs in six treatment areas. The administration proposed in January to lift the requirement for three types of medications: immunosuppressant drugs used in transplant patients; antidepressants; and antipsychotic medicines, used to treat schizophrenia and certain related disorders. Medicare officials had said the proposal would have saved money and reduced the overuse of drugs.

In addition, she said the administration had also decided to hold off on three other proposals. One proposal stipulates that insurers can offer no more than two prescription drug plans – one basic plan and one enhanced plan - to Medicare beneficiaries in the same region.  The health law’s ongoing closing of the Part D “doughnut hole,” the gap in coverage where seniors pay the full cost of coverage before the plan’s catastrophic cap kicks in, “has reduced the need for plans offering enhanced benefits,” according to CMS. The agency says that each region of the country now has on average nearly three dozen plans and reducing that would help give beneficiaries more clarity about the differences among plans. Critics of the proposal said it would limit seniors’ choices for coverage. Another would give patients greater access to small community pharmacies by requiring insurers to offer contracts to any retail drugstores willing to accept their terms and conditions. A third would allow the government to intervene in negotiations between insurers and pharmacies.

The agency will, however, move forward with other elements of the rule, she said, including those aimed at ensuring access for beneficiaries during natural disasters, reducing fraud and broadening the release of Part D data that does not identify beneficiaries.