Policy & Politics

CarelonRx, the PBM arm of Elevance Health, Inc., has a new “comprehensive approach to specialty medication savings across pharmacy and medical benefits,” according to an April 22 press release. The new product will use “advanced analytics” to “identify members whose health is at the greatest risk,” which will prompt “a thorough review of a member’s clinical diagnoses, medications, whole-health integrated support, and a review of their site of care options.” At that point, identified members will receive “proactive pharmacist-led outreach to address any barriers to care, and to further coordinate integrated care with their whole health team, including medical and behavioral health professionals.” Elevance recently announced a pending deal to acquire Kroger Inc.’s specialty pharmacy division as it grows its Carelon health services division.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on April 24 that he has launched an investigation into the “outrageously high prices” that Novo Nordisk is charging for its popular treatments for weight loss and Type 2 diabetes, Wegovy and Ozempic. In a letter to the Danish drugmaker’s CEO, Sanders — who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — noted that the list prices for Wegovy and Ozempic ($1,349 and $969 per month, respectively) are far higher than what the drugs can be purchased for in countries like Canada and Germany. In his letter, Sanders requested information about how Novo Nordisk determined the prices for Ozempic and Wegovy, what it spent on research and development, and more.

Although PBM-targeted legislation has stalled at the federal level, states are forging ahead in their efforts to rein in the highly scrutinized industry. In fact, the volume of state measures aimed at PBMs recently led the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to publish a review that zeroed in on five states that have taken a variety of approaches. Meanwhile, speakers at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) annual meeting told attendees about pending measures in states like California that industry stakeholders should be closely watching.

“We talk about states as the laboratories of democracy a lot,” Adam Colborn, director of government affairs at AMCP, said during an April 17 session at the conference, which was held in New Orleans. “There are a lot of experiments; I don’t know that they’re all successful experiments, but a lot of policies — particularly in the health care space — that are first enacted at the state level are then later implemented at the federal level.”

A bipartisan group of politicians wrote a letter on April 15 to UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty seeking information about the cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a UnitedHealth subsidiary since 2022. They wrote that they were interested in UnitedHealth’s “efforts to secure Change Healthcare’s systems since it was acquired by your company and the efforts you are taking to restore systemic functionality and support patients and providers affected by the attack.” The letter noted that Change’s systems process about 15 billion transactions each year and are linked to about 900,000 physicians, 118,000 dentists, 33,000 pharmacies and 5,500 hospitals. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), Subcommittee on Health Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) and Ranking Member Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) and Ranking Member Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) signed the letter.

Startup PBM Rightway on March 30 closed a $100 million Series C financing round, the firm said. According to Rightway, that means the startup is now valued at $1.1 billion. A press release discussing the funding round claims that the firm now serves more than 500,000 members and 850 clients. Rightway, which touts its transparency to prospective clients, also claimed that it generates “an average of 20% reduction in year 1 pharmacy cost savings.”

Payers doubt that state prescription drug affordability boards (PDABs) will have an effect on prescription costs any time soon, according to a survey by Avalere Health. As part of its survey, Avalere conducted “six double-blinded interviews with health plan representatives.” Among the states that have established PDABs, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington granted their boards the authority to set upper payment limits (UPLs.) According to Avalere, “all interviewees agreed that UPL-affected drugs or their competitors in the therapeutic class could see greater utilization management…depending on how manufacturers respond to supply chain changes, rebating, and UPL implementation.” In addition, five of six interviewees said they “expect formulary adjustments.” Colorado’s was the first PDAB to propose a UPL, but that has been challenged by the affected drug manufacturer. As a result, interviewed Colorado payers “are not yet actively preparing for a UPL,” expecting that the actual UPL won’t come into effect for “more than a year.”

A panel of experts will recommend in a formal report to Congress that ground ambulance-related balance bills should be settled using a rate-setting benchmark rather than arbitration, according to one member of the panel; in addition, the report will recommend that Medicare should begin to cover care that is delivered by ambulance personnel but does not result in a hospital transport. The report is under review by CMS, and is expected to kick off another battle on Capitol Hill over surprise billing policy.

Balance or surprise billing generally occurs when a person unwittingly receives care from an out-of-network provider and is then billed by that provider for whatever balance remains after insurance reimbursement. According to a member of the panel, the report will recommend that balance bills for ground ambulance care should be banned in virtually all circumstances, including emergency transports to a hospital, interfacility transports and care delivered by EMTs in the field that does not result in a transport to a hospital.

When it comes to aging in place, seniors in the U.S. have a hodgepodge of programs and services available to them, and health plans can be a connector to and integrator of those services in their respective markets. Speakers at AHIP’s 2024 Medicare, Medicaid, Duals & Commercial Markets Forum, held March 12 to 14 in Baltimore, agreed that health plans can also play a valuable role in driving innovations across the Medicare and Medicaid programs, such as providing emergency and acute care in the home, supporting family caregivers, and advocating for policy solutions.

Before CMS in 2020 introduced the Hospital Without Walls program enabling health systems to provide acute hospital care in the home, integrated insurer-provider Kaiser Permanente (KP) launched the Advanced Care at Home (ACAH) model. One of several KP initiatives that support aging in place, ACAH leverages expert care teams and technology to provide 24/7 physician-led acute care and coordinate patients’ recovery in the familiar setting of the home. Eligible patients are identified in urgent care, emergency and/or inpatient settings but must also meet certain social and clinical criteria, explained Rachna Pandya, regional strategic implementation leader of Medicare operations and strategy, during the session, “Best Practices to Support Aging in Place.”

A new report by Brookings Institution researchers concludes that the No Surprises Act, the 2020 law that banned surprise medical billing, may cause prices — and consequently premiums — to increase, even though policymakers hoped the law would slow or reverse price growth. The report also concludes that a small group of providers, particularly physician staffing groups owned by private equity entities, are responsible for most of the price increases.

This unintended consequence raises the stakes of ongoing litigation between the Texas Medical Association (TMA) and the Biden administration. Those lawsuits challenge regulations governing the NSA-created, HHS-backed arbitration process, called Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR), which resolves balance billing disputes between payers and providers when patients unintentionally receive out-of-network care. The TMA and other provider groups have successfully sued multiple times to block IDR rulemaking that many experts believe would have kept price growth in check.

HHS and the Labor and the Treasury departments on March 28 released final rules pertaining to short-term, limited-duration (STLDI) health plans. Those plans will be limited to last no more than four months, compared to up to three years under the previous rules. The rules will also require issuers of STLDIs “to include a clear, easy-to-understand consumer notice on marketing, application, enrollment, and reenrollment materials, so that consumers can make informed coverage purchasing decisions.” The departments called STLDI plans “junk insurance” and noted they are not subject to consumer protections enacted in the Affordable Care Act, including guaranteeing coverage for people with preexisting conditions.

Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, sent a letter on March 25 to UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty requesting information about the ongoing cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a UnitedHealth subsidiary. Raskin inquired about details such as what data may have been exposed and what policies UnitedHealth has in place to prevent an attack, and he asked Witty to respond to the 12 questions in writing by April 8. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that UnitedHealth said on March 22 that it would start processing its medical claims backlog of more than $14 billion.

As it marked the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, the Biden administration in recent days announced several new steps that aim to build on the Medicaid coverage gains achieved by the ACA — and reduce the coverage losses due to Medicaid redeterminations.

On March 27, CMS finalized a rule that aims to streamline eligibility and enrollment processes for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) beneficiaries. Among other provisions, the rule prohibits states from conducting coverage eligibility renewals any more frequently than 12 months apart.

More than 21 million people selected or were automatically reenrolled in health plans during the most recent Affordable Care Act open enrollment period (OEP). That’s according to one of four reports issued by HHS on March 22 marking the 10-year anniversary of the ACA. HHS also said that 5.1 million more people signed up for coverage during the 2024 OEP compared to the 2023 OEP, representing a 31% increase. Another report found that over 45 million people now have coverage thanks to the creation of the ACA marketplaces and Medicaid expansion -- “the highest total on record.”

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) on March 14 began a review of UnitedHealth Group’s proposed acquisition of Amedisys Inc., a home health provider. Amedisys disclosed the OHA’s review in a March 19 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. UnitedHealth made a $3.26 billion unsolicited offer for Amedisys last June, shortly after Amedisys had agreed to merge with Option Care Health, Inc., a home infusion provider. Amedisys’s shareholders approved the UnitedHealth deal in September, but the transaction is subject to regulatory approval. In a preliminary analysis published this month, the OHA wrote “this transaction has the potential to reduce competition in Oregon’s market for home health and hospice services and other health care markets in the state.”