Medicare drug benefit seen as mixed blessing

The Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) that established the system's first outpatient drug benefit gives pharmacists more questions than answers. The reason is clear: politics. "The entire process is driven by politics," said Dan Mendelson, president of the Health Strategies Consultancy, a Washington, D.C., health policy firm. "Medicare is a political act, and the changes you will see to it will be politically driven."