Drug Costs

Clearing Up Confusion about the Medicaid Rebate Program: Part I

As federal efforts to address prescription drug costs intensify, this three-part blog series addresses misleading claims or confusion about Medicaid, its highly effective drug rebate program and overall drug pricing issues in the hopes of better informing the debate moving forward. Part II | Part III In response to federal Medicaid rebate increases, drug manufacturers would […]

Risks to Medicaid Surface in Drug Pricing Debate

As the debate over prescription drug pricing heats up, I have been worried for a while that some of the federal policy solutions being considered in Congress and in the Administration could adversely affect Medicaid and its highly effective rebate program, whether inadvertently or intentionally.  This could result in higher Medicaid drug costs, reduced beneficiary […]

Trump Administration Encourages States to Seek Waivers to Opt Out of Medicaid Drug Rebate Program

On June 27, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services partially approved Massachusetts’ Medicaid waiver proposal, but among other provisions, rejected a proposal to impose a “closed formulary” for prescription drugs under which the state could entirely exclude coverage of certain drugs in ways not permitted under current law.  Instead, CMS expressed openness to approving […]