If you are still a bit confused about the kinds of drugs that are covered under various tiers in your Medicare Advantage plans for 2021, please read this and find out more. It is always a challenge to be on the same page when a person from the insurance office is spewing out names and terms that you don’t have a clue about. Please take a couple of minutes to read this and get yourself acquainted with tiers and drugs and stuff like that. In all, there are six different tiers that we need to focus on. Let’s get started.

Let’s Understand Tier 1 And Tier 2 First:

Both these tiers deal with drugs that are generic. In other words, these are drugs that are quite commonly used. They could be for the treatment of common ailments and illnesses that one comes across quite often. Take for instance the drug Loperamide or Paracetamol. The first one is used to treat diarrhoea and the second one is to treat fever. Both these drugs come under the generic drug category. Tier 1 is preferred generic drugs and Tier 2 also refer to generic drugs. The only difference between the two is that for Tier 2 drugs you end up paying a little bit more than you would for a Tier 1 drug.

What About Tiers 3 And 4?

That’s easy to understand too – Tier 3 refers to drugs that are known as the preferred brand; generally, these don’t have an equivalent in the list of the generic drugs. Tier 4 refers to non-preferred drugs, which are highly-priced in comparison to Tier 3. Basically, you would have pay around fifty per cent of the cost of the drug if you buy a Tier 4 one and around 40% of the cost of the drug if it is a Tier 3 one.

Tier 5 drugs are generally quite expensive and are used for diseases like cancer or even extremely complicated situations like sclerosis or other such diseases. The unfortunate thing with this tier is that you end paying quite a bit, because of the high cost of these drugs. In the case of Tier 6 drugs, you would probably pay only a few dollars. These are generic drugs that are used to treat lifestyle diseases like cholesterol and diabetes. Hope you have a better idea of the various kinds of drugs that are covered under your Medicare plan.