After months of debate, the Obama administration has scrapped a controversial plan to overhaul Medicare Part B that was designed to reduce drug costs for the government program.
The decision is not a surprise, given the Trump administration will soon take office with its own set of health care priorities. But the move is a victory for physician groups and the pharmaceutical industry that lobbied hard against the proposal, which would have encouraged greater use of less expensive, but equally effective medicines covered by Part B. The program pays for injectable and infused drugs for the elderly.
“While there was a great deal of support from some, a number of stakeholders expressed strong concerns about the model,” a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wrote us. “While CMS was working to address these concerns, the complexity of the issues and the limited time available led to the decision not to finalize the rule at this time.”
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Ah, the sin of proposing a cost reduction measure when the party opposed to you doesn’t like the program to begin with. Oh, wait, this wasn’t the ACA – it’s Medicare Part B… well, then again, hmmm?