Crab cakes and … horse racing. That’s what Maryland does. Mine will come with a side of Smith Island cake which I’m making tomorrow morning. Wish me luck. Odds aren’t stacked. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the Medicaid rule won’t contain the stacking provision. A little odd to pre-announce it,…
Back to back. Arnold Ventures put out the latest anti-pharma talking points (h/t Brian Reid) and here were two back to back – Here’s the problem, it really isn’t about the cost of drugs. I mean you could take that drug price and reduce it 98% and the 25% cost share would still be too…
LDT. Not a sandwich, not a drink but laboratory developed tests. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put out the long anticipated final rule on LDTs. If you’re more of a prescription drug policy person, get used to following LDT policy. We’ve moved from tests that are nice but, even if you have…
What the math. Yesterday afternoon CMS released a technical memo on the changes to True Out-of-Pocket (TrOOP) Costs and the maximum monthly cap for the Medicare prescription payment plan (MP3.) Simply put, they put out a memo that shows the math for the smoothing program. I need to work through some of the examples because,…
Just… wow. Healthcare has a lot of rabbit holes but as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, copay accumulators should be understood at a basic level. I’m not asking about alternative funding and to draw up a case study. Just that accumulators can’t be used in Medicare. Basics. Heck a simple…
Ruling It. Yesterday afternoon, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the MA/Part D final rule. Personally, most of it was not up my alley but I did read over the changes to the changes to an approved formulary sections. In December 2022, CMS proposed allowing immediate substitution of interchangeable biosimilars or branded biologics…
It has been a week of odds and ends so if you’re catching up after ignoring your emails, you didn’t miss a ton. Honestly, it seems like a good time to be a DC law firm working on pharmaceutical issues. You have the usual Inflation Reduction Act submissions, comment letters (which, for what it is…
If you’re one of those people who is working from the couch today, I salute you. It really is the most fun day of sports. I was mocked for the way I picked my bracket (where wouId I rather live?) but I had a clean bracket until Kentucky. I blame my newfound like of bourbon.…
It was one of those rare weeks in Washington, DC where the weather was just perfect. I mean not if you suffer from allergies, but for everyone else. Same Same. Last week we had the State of the Union, this week we had the President’s Budget release. For what it is worth, the budget is…
Happy International Women’s Day. Best display of International Women’s day I’ve ever seen was in Russia when I was studying abroad. They took it SERIOUSLY. Not just a LinkedIn Holiday. Cat-astrophe? No, just a political speech – not reality. President Biden talked about increasing the number of negotiated drugs up to 50 a year. Not…