Podcast — Drug Pricing: How Are Payers Responding to the IRA?
Podcast: IP(DC): Drug Prices, Political Pressures & Patents
On October 2, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued final guidance for initial price applicability year (IPAY) 2027 of the Drug Price Negotiation Program established by the Inflation Reduction Act...more
On August 15, 2024, CMS announced the results of the first round of the negotiated prices between CMS and participating drug manufacturers for the 10 selected drugs under the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) Medicare Drug...more
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) marked a significant milestone in Congress’s ongoing efforts to address escalating health care costs. While the IRA aims to rein in government spending on Medicare and...more
On December 14, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published two “revised” guidance documents implementing the Medicare Part B and Part D inflation rebate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of...more
On September 5, 2023, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) published its report titled Medicare Part D: CMS Should Monitor Effects of Rebates on Plan Formularies and Beneficiary Spending.The report...more
The ability to directly negotiate drug prices has been a policy goal for Democrats for many years and was recently accomplished through the Inflation Reduction Act’s (“IRA”) Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program (the...more
Although most of the recent focus around the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) by the press and industry stakeholders has been on the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, the IRA has several other...more
The Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) was passed just over a year ago with a goal of lowering high drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries and reducing costs incurred by Medicare. A central piece to achieving the IRA’s goal of...more
In 2024, Medicare will, for the first time, have authority under the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers. On August 29, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...more
While only slightly past the midway point of 2023, it has already been a busy year for developments in drug pricing. Notably, CMS released its final guidance in preparation for price negotiations and the first 10 drugs...more
This month, pharmaceutical manufacturer, Merck & Co., Inc. (“Merck”), as well as four chambers of commerce, have filed suits against the federal government, arguing that the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program introduced...more
The Inflation Reduction Act (the “IRA”) requires drug manufacturers to pay rebates to Medicare when the prices of their Part B and Part D prescription drug increase faster than the rate of inflation. We recently discussed the...more
On March 11, 2022, OIG issued Advisory Opinion No. 22-05 in which it responded to a request for an advisory opinion regarding a proposed subsidization of certain cost-sharing obligations in the context of a clinical trial...more
Now that we have had the chance to read and meditate on the historic Medicaid waiver approved on Friday January 8th, giving Tennessee permission from the Federal government to fundamentally alter Medicaid’s traditional...more
CMS is soliciting comments on whether future payments for devices that may have been impacted by the COVID-19 PHE should be adjusted. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its annual proposed rule related...more
On March 11, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a voluntary model within the Medicare Part D program that would allow certain Part D plans to cap Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs for...more
Food/Dietary Supplements - FDA Releases Menu Labeling Social Media Toolkit – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a “menu labeling social media toolkit.” ...more
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a new Medicare Part D demonstration to address the potential implementation of a recent proposed rule that would exclude from anti-kickback safe harbor...more
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has just announced a significant shift in Medicare Part D formulary design to allow Part D sponsors to customize their formularies based not just on the drug, but also...more
On Wednesday May 9th, I was floored when the Administration released the Spring 2018 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which contained this nugget: by December 2018, HRSA will publish its 340B Omnibus...more
On Friday, after weeks of delay, the President finally delivered his Drug Pricing Speech and released the HHS Blueprint detailing the Trump Administration’s plan to lower drug prices and reduce out-of-pocket costs....more
On Feb. 9, 2018, the Trump Administration released a 30-page report analyzing domestic and global factors influencing drug pricing. The report by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is expected to inform the HHS' Fiscal...more
Today, January 16, 2018 is the deadline for interested parties to submit comments to CMS regarding the proposed contract year 2019 Medicare Advantage and Part D regulations. The proposed rule focuses on many issues. In...more
OIG Advisory Opinions - Manufacturer's Free Replacement of Spoiled Pharmaceutical Products Authorized - On Aug. 25, 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG)...more