Healthcare Dive: Advocacy groups push back against CMS protected drugs claims

​A recent article in Healthcare Dive featured the new study from the Partnership and Avalere Health, demonstrating that Part D plan sponsors are already using a variety of techniques to limit access to drugs in Medicare's protected classes. The author explains that the Trump Administration’s recently proposed rule looks to use step therapy and prior authorization to better manage pharmaceuticals in the protected classes, despite the fact that "more than 90% of the prescriptions filled across the protected classes were for generic medications." According to the article, "this research shows that plans are aggressively utilizing tier placement and other management tools to drive an overwhelming percent of seniors towards lower cost medications," said Chuck Ingoglia, senior vice president of public policy and practice improvement at the National Council for Behavioral Health​.

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