Medicare Part D plans are required to include in their formularies at least:
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Answer & full 3-part explanation (select an option above, or peek)
Why A is correct
CMS requires every Medicare Part D plan formulary to include at least two drugs in each covered therapeutic category and pharmacologic class, ensuring beneficiaries have genuine choices within each drug class. Plans must also cover substantially all drugs in certain protected classes, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics. The two-drug-per-class floor is the minimum formulary standard, and it gives enrollees meaningful alternatives when a drug is changed or non-preferred. Option A correctly states this formulary requirement. The requirement ensures that when one drug is restricted or changed, the beneficiary still has an alternative within the same class.
Why the other options are wrong
- B) A single drug for the whole formulary would fail the two-drug-per-class requirement and would leave beneficiaries without any choice within a class. The two-drug-per-class floor is a statutory minimum that a single-drug formulary cannot meet.
- C) Plans are not required to cover every FDA-approved drug; they may design tiered formularies as long as the minimum class coverage standard is met. Formularies may be selective and tiered; full FDA coverage is never required.
- D) There is no ten-drugs-per-disease rule; the binding standard is at least two drugs per covered therapeutic category and pharmacologic class. The rule is stated in terms of therapeutic classes, not in a ten-drugs-per-disease figure.
Memory hook
Part D formularies must offer at least two per class — a floor, not a free-for-all, not an all-you-can-eat list.