CMS continues to make a bad law worse, says PhRMA

US trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) last week submitted comments in response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) draft guidance for implementation of the prescription drug price-setting program established under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Unfortunately, rather than using their authority to mitigate the program’s harmful impact on patients and innovation, CMS has doubled down on the previous administration’s misguided approach, said PhRMA, noting the following as to how the CMS risks making a bad law worse:

Fails to protect patient access. Once again, the CMS failed to protect patient access to medications selected for price setting or for those taking drugs in the same class. While the CMS says it will monitor plan behavior, that doesn’t go far enough to ensure patients won’t see higher costs or limited access if insurers adjust their policies.