CMS Proposes Methods To Cut Costs in Medicare Part B Potentially at the Expense of Patients

The White House, South Facade, Washington DC The Obama administration will begin testing roughly a half-dozen new ways to pay for prescription drugs under Part B of Medicare. Currently, doctors are paid by the Medicare Part B program based on a drug’s average sales price, plus 6 percent. One alternative method would reduce the add-on payment to 2.5 percent and pay a flat fee per drug on top of that. Different methods will be tested in different parts of the country; however, the administration would not say how many of the 55 million Medicare beneficiaries would be affected by these new methods of paying for prescription drugs. The administration is accepting public comments until May 9, 2016. Read more here.