Week in Washington is brought to you by Michael Cohen, PhD. Tune in each week to read the latest on healthcare policy and get a glimpse of what’s on the horizon.
Week in Washington
03/16/2023
Medicaid Unwinding
Kaiser Family Foundation released new survey data on how states are preparing for Medicaid unwinding (i.e., ending of the continuous enrollment provisions and beginning of redeterminations). You can read the full report here and the summary here. The survey revealed dramatic variation between states in terms of the timing of redetermination, prioritization of redetermination, outreach strategies, eligibility operations, and transparency. For example, only about 23 states stated they would publish unwinding data on their own website. Given the wide variation in approaches, the outcomes are expected to be varied. KFF recently estimated that about 15 million beneficiaries are expected to be removed from the Medicaid rolls over the next 12-14 months.
CMS Prescription Drug Announcement
As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, drug manufactures must pay a rebate if they raise prices for certain drugs faster than the rate of inflation. The rebate is paid to Medicare who then can adjust certain Part B drug and biologicals beneficiary coinsurance. This week CMS announced which drugs, 27 in total, will have coinsurance reduction during Q2 (April to June) of 2023. You can read the fact sheet here and the list of drugs here
CMS also released proposed guidance on the implementation of drug negotiations. You can read the guidance here or the fact sheet here
Abortion Drug Ruling
A federal judge in Texas heard oral arguments on a challenge to the commonly access abortion pill. The ruling could not only could affect abortion access but could open the door to lawsuits challenging other drugs approved by the FDA.
Insulin Announcement
Novo Nordisk announced this week they were cutting prices for several of their insulin products by up to 75%, effective January 2024. The drug could be exposed to the uncapped rebates in the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, which may have impacted the decision on the price cuts.
Previous editions:
03/09/2023: Week in Washington
03/02/2023: Week in Washington
02/23/2023: Week in Washington
02/09/2023: Week in Washington
02/02/2023: Week in Washington
01/26/2023: Week in Washington
01/19/2023: Week in Washington
01/12/2023: Week in Washington