Important Points
- In order to reduce expenses for some older Americans participating in Medicare, the Biden administration announced that it will apply inflation penalties on 64 prescription medications for the third quarter of this year.
- Reducing drug costs in the United States is a major component of President Joe Biden’s health care program and 2024 reelection platform.
- Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act stipulates that pharmaceutical companies must reimburse Medicare for price increases on their products if the rate of inflation exceeds a certain threshold.
WFCN – In order to reduce expenses for some older Americans participating in Medicare, the Biden administration said on Wednesday that it will apply inflation penalties to 64 prescription medications during the third quarter of this year.
Reducing drug costs in the United States is a major component of President Joe Biden’s health care program and 2024 reelection platform. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act stipulates that pharmaceutical companies must reimburse Medicare, the government health program for anyone over 65, if their price increases for pharmaceuticals exceed the rate of inflation.
It is not to be confused with another legal provision that permits Medicare to bargain with medication producers for reduced prescription drug costs. The Biden administration claims that Americans pay two to three times as much on average for prescription medications than patients in other affluent countries.
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According to an administration release, “since each drug company raised prices faster than the rate of inflation,” certain patients would pay a lower coinsurance rate for the 64 pharmaceuticals covered under Wednesday’s announcement, which are under Medicare Part B, for the period from July 1 to September 30.
According to the statement, if certain Medicare Part B patients utilize those medications during the quarter, they might save as much as $4,593 every day.
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According to the press release, the medications are used annually by almost 750,000 Medicare beneficiaries. The drugs are used to treat diseases of the bones termed osteoporosis, infections, and cancer.
The list includes Pfizer’s Adectris, a tailored cancer treatment for specific lymphomas, and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Abecma, a cell therapy for multiple myeloma. It also includes Padcev, a targeted cancer treatment for advanced bladder cancer from Astellas Pharma and Pfizer.
Since the Medicare inflation rebate scheme started last year, the Biden administration claims that Padcev’s price has climbed every quarter at a rate faster than inflation.
In the absence of the Inflation Reduction Act, seniors were fully vulnerable to price increases by Big Pharma. Not any more,” the White House Domestic Policy Advisor, Neera Tanden, stated in the statement.
In 2025, the first drugmakers will receive bills from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for the rebates that are owing to the program.
Biden published a list of 48 prescription medications in December that would be penalized for inflation in the first quarter of 2024.