Among the aims of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), one is to reduce health care costs for older adults by eliminating cost sharing for certain drugs and vaccines covered by Medicare Part D. To help determine if the impact matches the IRA’s intent, a team led by Dima Qato, PharmD, PhD, MPH, the Hygeia Centennial Chair for the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, evaluated the impact of the policy on the rate of shingles vaccinations, the most commonly-administered vaccine covered by Part D.

Published as a research letter in JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, the study found that compared to the one year before the implementation of the IRA policy on January 2023, shingles vaccinations covered by Part D rose by 46%.

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