Bowing to CMS’s request after another public comment period, Tennessee is reluctantly pursuing a series of changes to the pending TennCare III demonstration that had been approved by the Trump administration for a start date of Jan. 8, 2021. In what one source says is an unusual back-and-forth on public display, the state will abandon its notorious plans to implement a closed Medicaid formulary and adopt a fixed funding mechanism.

Shortly before President Joe Biden took office, the Trump administration in January 2021 approved Tennessee’s request to use an “aggregate cap” for Medicaid funding that many industry observers had likened to a block grant. Through that approach, Tennessee would have received federal Medicaid funds based on a fixed budget target that is determined by CMS and the state using historical enrollment and costs data. If spending fell below that target cap but certain quality goals were met, the state would earn up to 55% of annual savings to reinvest back into other state health programs.

The quality of care and patient experience significantly varies among Medicare Advantage plans with similar monthly premiums, according to an analysis published on Aug. 26 in JAMA Health Forum. The retrospective, cross-sectional study also found that there was only a small mean difference in quality among low- and high-cost plans.

Amelia Haviland, the study’s lead author, tells AIS Health that the results indicate “how little guarantee there is that by paying more you’re going to wind up in a plan with higher quality. You might pick one of the plans that’s well below the mean within that cost tier or much higher.” However, she suggests insurers that offer low-cost Medicare plans can use the findings to show that people can still receive top-notch plans without paying high premiums.

Multiple companies that provide alternate funding options for patients have been launching over the last several years. But one maximizer company has found itself the target of a legal battle with manufacturer Johnson & Johnson over its strategy to reclassify drugs and maximize the copay assistance it gets from pharma manufacturers.

Copay maximizers have companies classify some drugs as “non-essential health benefits” (NEHBs) as outlined in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). They then secure patient assistance for these drugs through manufacturers’ or charitable foundations’ patient assistance programs, taking the full annual amount of assistance per drug and spreading out that money over the course of the year (see story). The programs are seen as follow-on offerings to copay accumulators, which take the maximum assistance up front and deplete the contribution before the end of the year.

Multiple companies are offering copay maximizer — also known as variable copay — programs. And while they may be attractive to firms that implement them, a closer look might reveal them to be not as appealing as they seem at first blush, say industry experts. The programs also are being challenged in legal settings, including a lawsuit by manufacturer Johnson & Johnson against SaveOnSP (see story).

Traditionally, when a manufacturer provides copay assistance for one of its drugs, that dollar amount would count toward the patient’s deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. But copay maximizer programs will distribute 100% of available manufacturer copay offset funds over 12 months, as opposed to copay accumulators, which apply the maximum manufacturer assistance up front and deplete that contribution before the end of the year. Payments in both approaches do not count toward members’ deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.

A recent FDA approval of a label expansion put the three marketed therapies for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) on equal footing for the youngest patients. And recent survey found that many payers are covering sequential use of the costly agents, including a gene therapy.

The FDA initially approved Evrysdi (risdiplam) from Roche Group member Genentech USA, Inc. on Aug. 7, 2020, for the treatment of SMA in people at least 2 months old. On May 30, 2022, the agency expanded the drug’s label to include the treatment of infants less than 2 months old. The survival motor neuron 2 (SMN2) splicing modifier is an oral solution administered by mouth or feeding tube and can be administered by a patient or caregiver at home after a recommended consultation with a health care professional prior to the first dose.

Specialty drug trend in 2021 largely recovered from the hit it took from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, driven mainly by an increase in utilization. That’s according to the 2022 Artemetrx State of Specialty Spend and Trend Report from Pharmaceutical Strategies Group (PSG), an EPIC company.

Published in August, the report is sponsored by specialty pharmacy Reliance Rx. Findings are based on an Artemetrx analysis of 73.9 million medical claims and 55.1 million pharmacy claims from PSG’s book of business. It is the sixth annual version of the report.

As companies are exploring different strategies to keep their pharmaceutical costs in check, a spate of so-called alternate funding companies has emerged in the industry. And while they might appeal to a potential client at first glance, some — such as ones that carve out certain specialty drugs and seek coverage from patient assistance funds — may not be worth the investment, say some industry sources, who encourage companies to take a closer look at what their savings actually are.

During a July 29 webinar titled Specialty Drugs Update: Trends, Controversies, and Outlook, longtime industry expert Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., CEO of Drug Channels Institute, noted that while the use of copay accumulators and maximizers has risen, “there is another newer trend that’s even scarier, and that’s the business of what some people call specialty carve-outs,” he said, calling this “the shady business of specialty carve-outs.” Vendors such as ImpaxRX, Payd Health, SHARx, PayerMatrix and Script Sourcing get payers to exclude specialty drugs and then get those drugs covered via patient-assistance programs at manufacturers or charitable foundations. If patients are denied patient assistance, coverage reverts to the company’s payer/PBM/specialty pharmacy.

After a year in which health care cost trend flatlined, costs for self-funded plan sponsors increased “significantly” — by 8.2% — in 2021, according to the Business Group on Health’s 2023 Large Employers’ Health Care Strategy and Plan Design Survey. In addition, for the first time in the history of the annual survey, cancer eclipsed musculoskeletal conditions as the top driver of large firms’ health costs.

In 2020, 78% of polled employers said cancer was the top cost-driving condition, and the share rose to 80% in 2021 and 83% in 2022. The percentage of employers identifying musculoskeletal conditions as the most expensive condition dropped each of the three years, from a high of 90% in 2020, down to 84% in 2021 and 76% in 2022.

Multiple companies have been launching over the last several years that provide alternate funding options for patients. But one maximizer company has found itself the target of a legal battle with manufacturer Johnson & Johnson over its strategy to reclassify drugs and maximize the copay assistance it gets from pharma manufacturers.

Traditionally, when a manufacturer provides copay assistance for one of its drugs, that dollar amount would count toward the patient’s deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. But copay maximizer programs will distribute 100% of available manufacturer copay offset funds over 12 months, as opposed to copay accumulators, which apply the maximum manufacturer assistance up front and deplete that contribution before the end of the year. Payments in both approaches do not count toward members’ deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.

A new formulation of a narcolepsy drug may get uptake among providers, according to Zitter Insights research. But payers indicate that they are likely to require patients to fail at least one generic drug before getting access to the new agent and other branded medications.

On July 19, Avadel Pharmaceuticals plc said that the FDA had granted tentative approval to its Lumryz (sodium oxybate) for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness or cataplexy in adults with narcolepsy. The drug — which is also known as FT218 — is a once-at-bedtime extended-release version of Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s Xyrem, which requires one dose at bedtime and then another dose between two-and-a-half to four hours later.