Podcast — Drug Pricing: How Are Payers Responding to the IRA?
Podcast: IP(DC): Drug Prices, Political Pressures & Patents
In April 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued multiple pieces of guidance related to Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage, including the Final CY 2026 Part D...more
On April 15, 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published the Contract Year 2026 Policy and Technical Changes Final Rule which amends the regulations governing various Medicare programs, including the...more
Evaluating current formulary access for the 25 drugs selected for Drug Price Negotiation in Medicare Part D shows several selected drugs have higher co-pays in 2025 relative to 2024 - Introduction - The Inflation Reduction...more
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in 2022, made changes to the way drugs are covered and reimbursed in Medicare. While some of the changes taking effect this year could save the government money, beneficiaries may...more
At a public meeting held on January 15, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) summarized the Second Interim Staff Report (Second Report) stemming from its investigation into pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their...more
There are important new rules this year relating to prescription drug coverage which may be relevant to your Medicare plan beginning January 1, 2025. The “Open Enrollment” period this year during which eligible individuals...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
We Americans pay more for prescription medications than just about anywhere else on the globe. And Big Pharma keeps jacking prices higher....more
Within the last few months, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued guidance that will reduce the financial burdens of paying for prescription drug coverage for Medicare patients. The guidance outlines...more
Last week, McDermott+Consulting launched an election 2024 resource page, where you can find a 2024 health policy outlook and other insights into the November election. While regulations aren’t necessarily top-of-mind when...more
On November 15, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule titled Contract Year 2025 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage Program, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit...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
On August 29, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the ten (10) Medicare Part D drugs selected for the first round of negotiations of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program (Program)—a few...more
This legislative session, Florida has joined Arkansas and Oklahoma among the most regulatory-minded states with respect to pharmacy benefit plans and programs as well as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Florida's...more
On January 6, 2022, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule regarding Contract Year 2023 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit...more
On November 19, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376, the “BBB Act”), the budget reconciliation bill that includes much of President Biden’s economic and social policy...more
As reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-6) on April 22, 2021 after originally being introduced on September 19, 2019, H.R. 3, also known as known as the Elijah E. Cummings Lower...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
[co-authors: Sean Feely, Senior Public Policy Specialist and Julie E. Nolan, Senior Policy Advisor] • On September 19, Speaker Pelosi released a drug pricing plan that includes proposals for Medicare direct price...more
In a rare act of bipartisanship, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced on July 23rd a chairman’s mark, the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act (PDPRA)...more
On June 4 – 5, 2019, Judge Richard J. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held an extraordinary and unprecedented evidentiary hearing to decide whether to enter the proposed Final Judgment in U.S. v....more
When it comes to something as crucial as health care, let’s keep it simple: Americans deserve better than this …...more
On February 6, 2019, the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the “OIG”) published in the Federal Register a proposed rule (the “Proposed Rule”) that, if made final in its...more
In a significant step towards implementing its American Patients First blueprint for lowering prescription drug prices and patient out-of-pocket costs, the Trump administration has proposed a series of changes to the...more
On January 31, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) issued a proposed rule (“Proposed Rule”) that would restrict safe harbor protection under the federal Anti-Kickback...more