PCMA: Medicare offsets in 21st Century Cures outweigh benefits

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association recently said that the Medicare Part D offsets included in the Energy & Commerce Committee’s 21st Century Cures Initiative outweigh the benefits.

"If the 21st Century Cures initiative can only be advanced by cutting billions from America's premier health program – Medicare – then its costs outweigh any potential benefits it may yield down the road,” PCMA said.

Over five years, the bill would provide more than $10 million in funding to the National Institutes of Health and $550 million for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; however, it includes potential cuts to Medicaid and Medicare.

The bill includes a provision limiting Medicare reimbursement for film X-rays to promote the use of digital imaging and the timing of reinsurance payments to prescription drug plan sponsors under Medicare Part D to lower the amount of interest that can add up the more time it takes for reimbursement to be sent.

"Leveraging payments to Part D plans to fund this legislation ironically could have the unintended consequence of making it harder for beneficiaries to access the very medicines that 21st Century Cures seeks to advance,” PCMA said. ”We urge policymakers to explore different offsets that don't pose new risks to other parts of the health care delivery system."