This week, the Senate Finance Committee unveiled long-awaited drug pricing legislation, the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act (PDPRA) of 2019. The bill outlines a number of changes to address the problem of high and rising drug prices within the Medicare program, including a redesign of the Part D benefit and the imposition of inflationary rebates.

A new study reveals that Medicaid expansion has reduced deaths in states where it has been adopted. By contrast, in states that have refused to expand their Medicaid coverage, approximately 15,600 people have died as a result. This study is the first large-scale assessment of the effect of Medicaid expansion on mortality.

Last week, the Trump administration decided to shelve a proposed rule that sought to change the way Medicare prescription drug plans (PDPs) and their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) negotiate and pay for drugs within Medicare Part D. The now-abandoned proposal would have eliminated certain types of rebates that currently go […]

The Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released two reports on the Medicare hospice benefit, identifying key vulnerabilities within the program and outlining opportunities for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to better protect beneficiaries. The reports are extremely troubling: from 2012 […]

This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in Texas v. U.S., the latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The appeals court is reviewing a federal trial court’s December 2018 decision invalidating the ACA. The underlying lawsuit was brought in 2017 by 20 […]

A rule from the Trump administration that sought to require prescription drug manufacturers to include pricing information in their television advertisements has been blocked by a federal court. The rule was supposed to go into effect on July 9. In the decision, the court ruled that only Congress, not the […]