News Briefs
✦ Implementation of the most- favored-nation (MFN) model continues to be stalled. Following court rulings in December that temporarily blocked its Jan. 1 enactment (RSP 1/21, p. 8), the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a joint motion to stay in the case (No. 8:20-cv-03531-GJH) until a final rule that’s based on the MFN interim final rule, which was published in late November, is published in the Federal Register. It requires that the defendants not appeal the preliminary injunction a California court issued and that “the performance period for any final regulation stemming from the MFN Interim Final Rule shall not commence earlier than 60 days” after its publication. View the motion at https://bit.ly/39EfoNw.
✦ A court also has pushed back implementation of the rebate rule until January 2023. The rule would require that drug rebates currently given to plan sponsors would instead be offered to seniors as discounts at the point of sale. It would exclude the rebates given to Part D plans or their PBMs from a safe harbor they now are included in and establish two new safe harbors. However, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association filed a lawsuit (No. 1:21-cv-00095-JDB) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against implementation of the rule. On Jan. 30, the court ordered postponement of the provisions set to take effect after Dec. 31, 2021. View the order at https://bit.ly/36zP2uh.