May 08, 2018
Medicare Advantage plans will receive a 3.4%
uptick in federal payments in 2019. That's nearly 90% more than the 1.84%
increase proposed in February.
Notice of the bigger raise came in the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services' 2019 final rate notice and call letter
released in April. As many as one-third of Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled
in a managed care plan last year, with enrollment running about 7% higher this
year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
The 2019 revisions include several policies
designed to lower drug costs, an effort lauded by Alan Rosenbloom, president
and CEO of the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition.
“Based on preliminary review of more than
1,000 pages of new regulation and guidance, the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition
appreciates CMS' sensitivity to the characteristics of the long-term care
patient population in finalizing new Part D regulations and the 2019 Call
Letter,” said Rosenbloom. “We are particularly gratified that the agency
modified opioid control provisions based on the unique characteristics of
long-term care patients and the heightened controls that long-term care
pharmacies provide.”
Rosenbloom continued to press for scrutiny of
how Part D plans and their affiliated pharmacy benefits managers impose
“inappropriate” fees on long-term care pharmacies.
“We look forward to the Trump administration's
anticipated plan to respond to high drug prices,” he added.
Plans will be able to add generic drugs to
their formularies at any time during the year, and increase the number of plan
options available.
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