WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare recipients will get a premium discount – however not till subsequent yr – reflecting what Well being and Human Companies Secretary Xavier Becerra mentioned Friday was an overestimate in prices of protecting an costly and controversial new Alzheimer’s drug.
Becerra’s assertion mentioned the 2022 premium ought to be adjusted downward however authorized and operational hurdles prevented officers from doing that in the course of the yr. He didn’t say how a lot the premium could be adjusted.
Medicare Half B premiums jumped by $22 a month, to $170.10, for 2022, partly due to the price of the drug Aduhelm, which was authorized regardless of weak proof that it may gradual the development of Alzheimer’s.
The Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies has restricted protection of Aduhelm to make use of in scientific trials authorized by the Meals and Drug Administration or the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. It started reassessing the premium improve underneath strain by Congress and customers.
The drug’s producer, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen, has reduce the price of the drug in half, to about $28,000 a yr.
CMS cited the sharp discount within the value of the drug and the restrictions on protection in concluding that value financial savings may very well be handed on to Medicare beneficiaries. In a report back to Becerra, the company mentioned the premium advice for 2022 would have been $160.40 a month had the worth reduce and the protection willpower each been in place when officers calculated the determine.
The premium for 2023 for Medicare’s greater than 56 million recipients will probably be introduced within the fall.
“We had hoped to attain this sooner, however CMS explains that the choices to perform this is able to not be possible,” Becerra mentioned. “CMS and HHS are dedicated to decreasing well being care prices – so we stay up for seeing this Medicare premium adjustment throughout the end line to make sure seniors get their cost-savings in 2023.”
