Advocacy & Practice Updates — Advocacy & Practice
Biden Proposes Additional Drug Price Negotiation in Medicare
This week, President Biden released portions of a deficit reduction plan that include recommendations that Congress give Medicare more authority to negotiate the price of drugs than was granted last year under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA gave CMS limited negotiating powers that focused on a short list of drugs that would only be eligible after years-long exclusivity periods. As a way to reduce Medicare spending and beneficiary co-pays, the administration would like to expand the list of drugs for price negotiation and shorten the exclusivity period.
This week’s announcement is a pre-curser to the expected release on Thursday of the President’s full FY 2024 budget proposal. While it is unlikely that these or other proposals in the budget will be enacted given a Republican-controlled House, the budget proposal provides insights into what policies the administration will be pursuing.
Published March 8, 2023