Proposed Regs Tweak Rx Drug Coverage in Exchanges, MA
Deep within two new proposed health insurance regulations are provisions that would alter how Medicare Advantage and Affordable Care Act exchanges cover prescription drugs — and some of them are garnering praise from patient advocates.
For example, the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute welcomed two of the proposals in the 2025 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (NBPP), the annual regulation governing the ACA marketplaces, which CMS released on Nov. 15.
One of those provisions would codify existing policies surrounding how health plans treat prescription drugs that aren’t part of a given state’s essential health benefits (EHB) benchmark plan. Under the ACA, individual market plans must cover items and services in 10 core benefit categories, including prescription drugs, and each state is responsible for defining which drugs make the must-cover list.