Administration Moves Forward with Medicare Drug Price Negotiations to Lower Prescription Drug Costs for People with Medicare

On October 3, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that all 10 drug companies whose drugs were selected for price negotiation with Medicare for the first cycle of the program have decided to participate in those negotiations. These selected drugs accounted for $50.5 billion in total Part D gross covered prescription drug costs, or about 20%, of total Part D gross covered prescription drug costs between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023, which is the time period used to determine which drugs were eligible for negotiation. According to HHS, Medicare enrollees taking the 10 drugs covered under Part D selected for negotiation paid a total of $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs in 2022 for these drugs.