Medicare Premium Cuts? It Looks Like Feds Have Made Their Decision
(DailyDig.com) – Medicare covers millions of Americans, allowing them to get medications and treatments at little or no cost to them. Those receiving Medicare Part B recently saw their monthly premiums increase. And despite the fact that prices for many medications have actually gone down, the US government has asserted it has no plan to reduce the costs in 2022.
Medicare Part B premium reduction won’t happen this year https://t.co/ERVtRG2LUC
— CNBC International (@CNBCi) May 31, 2022
Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), ordered the reassessment of 2022’s $170.10 monthly premium, which was a sharp increase from last year’s $148.50 premium. According to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the jump in price was largely due to the potential of covering Aduhelm’s cost. The Alzheimer’s disease-battling drug was expected to cost $56,000 annually per-patient, causing the monthly Medicare premium to jump.
However, Biogen recently cut the price in half to only $28,000 annually. The CMS also noted that it would only cover the cost of the drug for people who were part of a clinical trial, further reducing the cost. Yet, the CMS has asserted that a price change wouldn’t be possible in 2022, instead suggesting that any savings be applied to 2023’s calculation to determine the monthly premium for Part B.
In other words, the monthly premium will remain at $170.10 until at least the end of 2022, so people covered by Medicare Part B shouldn’t expect to see any price adjustments until at least 2023, when savings from 2022 will be applied.
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