On July 9, 2021, the Biden Administration issued an executive order (EO), “Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” to address corporate consolidation, lack of competition and high prices for consumers, and low wages.[i] The health care portion of the EO focuses on improving competition to address health care prices and access to care in four [...] Read More
President Trump has signed four executive orders (EOs) designed to lower prescription drug prices. This administration has repeatedly touted lowering drug prices as a priority and these orders touch on areas the administration has previously looked at including setting Medicare Part B payment based on international prices (referred to as “most favored nation”), prescription drug [...] Read More
Tweet President Trump announced on July 5 that he is planning to release an Executive Order that would enact a “most favored nation” requirement for prescription drug manufacturers. It was not immediately clear how this Executive Order would differ from the International Pricing Index proposal for Medicare that is currently under review with the Office [...] Read More
This evening, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule entitled “Modernizing Part D and Medicare Advantage to Lower Drug Prices and Reduce Out-of-Pocket Expenses.” In total, the agency estimates that beneficiaries will save $62 million over 10 years in out-of-pocket spending, and Medicare program costs will be reduced by an [...] Read More
Today, President Trump released his FY 2020 budget proposal, including $1.313 trillion in discretionary proposals (a reduction of $24 billion from his FY 2019 proposal). On the healthcare front, the budget requests an additional $500 million in funding devoted to childhood cancer research, $291 million to eliminate most new HIV infections within 5 years and [...] Read More
In last night’s State of the Union, President Trump addressed a number of health care related issues including prescription drug pricing, health care costs, and the defeat of HIV in the United States. On Prescription Drugs “Already, as a result of my Administration's efforts, in 2018 drug prices experienced their single largest decline in 46 years. [...] Read More
On January 31, 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a proposed rule that would, if finalized, remove the existing legal “safe harbor” that protects rebates currently negotiated between pharmaceutical manufacturers and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans and Medicaid plans. In its place, the agency [...] Read More
Overview This evening, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule entitled “Modernizing Part D and Medicare Advantage to Lower Drug Prices and Reduce Out-of-Pocket Expenses.” CMS believes that the changes proposed in this rule will give plans more tools to negotiate lower drug prices. The proposed rule discusses the definition [...] Read More
Healthcare will be first on the docket when the 116th Congress convenes in January, according to Rep. Don Beyer, speaker at this month’s gathering of the Northern Virginia Health Policy Forum. Mr. Beyer, who was just reelected to a third term, said he is looking forward to serving in the House majority with the hope [...] Read More
Following the release of an HHS report on international drug pricing, President Trump announced a new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) initiative to index pricing for Medicare Part B drugs to international prices. The advance notice of proposed rulemaking solicits comments on a demonstration program HHS is considering that would test changes to [...] Read More