When U.S. President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar announced last week the Jan. 1 launch of a Medicare Part B most-favored nation (MFN) drug pricing model and a final rule to end Medicare’s safe harbor for the rebates that create a black box around the pricing of Part D drugs, they called the reforms “historic.”
If a new federal rule withstands politics and potential court challenges, U.S. health care prices may finally be freed from their historic black box. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, along with the Departments of Labor and the Treasury, issued the Transparency in Coverage final rule Oct. 29 requiring most private health plans to disclose pricing and cost-sharing information so Americans will know in advance how much they will have to pay for prescription drugs, medical devices and other health care products and services.
The U.S. pathway for legally importing certain prescription drugs from Canada to take advantage of lower prices is closer to opening for business with the FDA issuing a final rule and guidance on making it happen.
Ignoring industry’s threat of a lawsuit, U.S. President Donald Trump is moving forward with his plan for “most-favored nation” pricing of certain prescription drugs. The president, on Sept. 13, signed the executive order he threatened in July if industry didn’t come up with a better offer by Aug. 24. Industry did make a counter offer last month, but apparently it wasn’t enough.
Citing the limited supplies and the pricing of the COVID-19 therapy, nearly three dozen U.S. states and territories are clamoring for the federal government to march in on Gilead Sciences Inc.’s patents for remdesivir. And if the feds won’t, then states should be given that authority, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the Department of Health and Human Services, the NIH and the FDA.
“Nothing to see here” seems to be the general reaction to the four executive orders President Donald Trump signed Friday in an effort to reduce U.S. prescription drug prices. Two of the orders – one on importing drugs from Canada and the other on kicking the safe harbor out from under the rebates pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) get from drug companies – instruct Health and Human Services (HHS) to continue, or resume, rulemaking on those measures.
Due to the pressing challenges of COVID-19, Health Canada is giving drug companies six more months to prepare for major reforms to its 1987 Patented Medicines Regulations.
The push in Congress to drive down U.S. prescription drug costs has taken a backseat to all things COVID-19, but that reprieve for drug companies may be about to end as freshman members of the House urge their leaders to include drug pricing proposals in the next coronavirus relief bill.
HONG KONG – Japan cuts medical device prices every two years to manage increasing health care costs. This year, the biennial medical device price cut will take effect beginning on April 1, 2020.
With battles over the future of American health care being waged in the courts and at the ballot box, JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, has devoted its latest issue to better understanding what Deputy Editor Gregory Curfman called the "challenging problem" of "relentless increases" in prescription drug prices.
