Industry Experts Weigh In on Medicaid Best Price Waiver Proposal
During a Sept. 17 virtual session of the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) National Conference on Medicare, Medicaid & Dual Eligibles, health insurance industry leaders were cautiously optimistic about t...
Pharma Industry Spends Big on Lobbying Amid COVID-19, Upcoming Election
Over the past six months, the pharmaceutical industry spent more than $156 million on lobbying even as drugmakers have been racing to produce coronavirus vaccines and treatments. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manu...
News Briefs
✦ Highmark Inc. said on Sept. 21 that it entered into an outcomes-based payment agreement with AstraZeneca PLC for Fasenra (benralizumab), which is an add-on treatment for patients age 12 and older with severe ast...
Express Scripts Nixes Cosentyx, Neulasta in 2021 Formularies
Cigna Corp.-owned PBM Express Scripts says it will exclude nearly 150 brand medications in its 2021 National Preferred Formulary. But one consultant says only a handful of the exclusions — notably, Novartis Pharma...
Cash-Strapped States Eye Reverse-Auction PBM Procurement
With the economic fallout from COVID-19 driving billions of dollars in projected state budget shortfalls over the next few years, officials around the country are taking a hard look at how to cut costs. Against that...
Prime Therapeutics Rolls Out New Real Time Benefit Tool
With the deadline approaching for Medicare Part D plans to implement a Real Time Benefit Tool (RTBT) — which informs prescribers when lower-cost alternative therapies are available under a beneficiary’s drug ben...
One Drug Pricing Order Is Still Missing; Another Draws Fire
A promised executive order that would tie drug prices to their costs in other countries has yet to emerge, although President Donald Trump has promoted the order as part of his re-election campaign. Meanwhile, payer...
Proposed Rule Aims to Hasten Access to Breakthrough Medical Devices
Carrying out another directive from President Trump’s Medicare-focused executive order issued last fall, CMS on Aug. 31 released a proposed rule that aims to fast-track Medicare coverage of certain innovative FDA ...
Most Medicare Part D Plans Incentivize Use of Generics, Study Finds
For medications with both brand-name and generic versions, an overwhelming majority of Medicare Part D plans encouraged the use of generics over their brand-name equivalents in 2019, according to a study published i...
News Briefs
✦ HHS on Sept. 9 issued guidance that authorizes state-licensed pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 vaccines to people ages 3 and up — when they’re authorized or licensed by the FDA and made available...