The President's budget proposal for 2016 seeks to gain the ability to negotiate drug prices under Medicare Part D, which will definitely face resistance from the Republican-controlled Congress.
The Obama administration said on Monday it would seek authority to negotiate pricing for high-cost drugs under the federal government's Medicare Part D program, which offers private insurance drug coverage for senior citizens and the disabled.
Barack Obama's new $3.99 trillion budget for fiscal-year 2016 proposes allowing the US Secretary for HHS to negotiate prices for biotechnology treatments and other high-cost drugs in Part D "to ensure access to and affordability of these treatments."
The move to add negotiating authority on drug prices is likely to draw fierce resistance in the Republican-controlled Congress. Lawmakers prohibited Medicare from negotiating prices directly with drug companies when it created the voluntary Part D program under former President George W. Bush in 2003.
Link to the complete Reuters article: http://reut.rs/1yw1pgs
The Supreme Court seems likely to reject a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone; the FDA is inspecting far fewer pharmaceutical companies conducting clinical research; AstraZeneca has sued to block an Arkansas law that it said would unlawfully expand the 340B program to include for profit-pharmacy chains.
Read More
Exploring Medicare Advantage Prior Authorization Variations
March 26th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the March 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on variations in prior authorization use across Medicare Advantage plans.
Listen
Covered Preventive Services at Risk: V-BID Summit Breaks Down the Braidwood v Becerra Case
March 20th 2024For more than a decade, certain high-value preventive care services have been covered at no cost to patients under the Affordable Care Act, but a current legal challenge has the coverage at risk.
Read More
Navigating Health Literacy, Social Determinants, and Discrimination in National Health Plans
February 13th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the February 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on how health plans can screen for health literacy, social determinants of health, and perceived health care discrimination.
Listen
Most private health insurers have yet to publish criteria for when they will cover postpartum depression drug, zuranolone; state lawmakers are increasingly opposing health care mergers that they believe do not serve the public interest; Medicaid extensions made in 2021 led to a 40% decline in postpartum lack of insurance.
Read More
President Biden will preview his plan to more than double the size of Medicare’s new drug price negotiation program in the upcoming State of the Union address; Mexicans and Central Americans were most affected by the pandemic in terms of all-cause mortality; two Alabama fertility clinics said they expect to resume in vitro fertilization (IVF) services after a bill was passed to protect doctors.
Read More