CMS is allowing Medicare Advantage plans to cross negotiate Part B and D drug prices
Healthcare Finance - Susan Morse, Senior Editor - August 07, 2018 Starting in 2019, insurers may use step therapy to choose the least expensive drug first before moving on to another prescription. For the first time, Medicare Advantage plans that also offer a Part D benefit have the option of cross negotiating for Part B drugs to get the lowest price, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told MA organizations in a memo that went out today. Until now, Part B outpatient drugs and Medicare Part D drugs usually picked up at the pharmacy, have been kept separate. Part B drugs often have a competitor in Part D, but plans were not allowed to choose, according to CMS Administrator Seema Verma. Starting in 2019, MA plans that also offer a Part D benefit will be able to cross manage across B and D. In this way, competition is increased for the lower price, Verma said. It might help plans negotiate better discounts and direct patients to high value medications, she said. Part B drugs constitute around $12 billion per year in spending by plans. "As a result of the agency's action today, the Medicare Advantage plans that choose to offer this option will be able to have medicines in Part B compete on a level playing field with those in Part D," CMS said. The new guidance also allows plans to use step therapy, a practice banned in 2012. Step therapy gives the private sector MA plans the option of offering patients a preferred therapy first before moving on to another drug. It is a type of preauthorization for drugs that begins with the most preferred - which is often the least expensive therapy - [...]