May 31, 2022
Payers
  • Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra announced on Friday that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will not lower Medicare premiums for adults 65 and over until 2023. The adjustment is intended to compensate for lower-than-expected spending on Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm. In January, Becerra publicly announced he was ordering Medicare to consider dropping older adults’ premiums in the middle of this year. However, it was not “feasible” for the agency to adjust the premiums this year due to “legal and operational hurdles.” (Press release here; Articles here, here, here, here, and here)