In addition to the pandemic driven economic downturn and the consequential surge in Medicaid enrollment, rising prescription drug costs in the Medicaid program have caused tremendous fiscal pressure on state budgets over the years. In 2017, pharmaceuticals accounted for 5.1 percent of Medicaid benefit spending, and this expense...
Medicaid prescription drug spending has been on the rise and some states have opted to carve out prescription drug benefits and transition to a Fee-For-Service (FFS) model. In theory, this delivery system helps states assert their purchasing power to reduce costs and improve oversight. However,...
Government healthcare reforms along with reducing prescription drug prices have been at the top of President Donald Trump’s agenda. A feud between the top health officials at HHS is delaying the administration’s healthcare initiatives. Over the past year, tensions have been building between HHS Secretary Alex...
In January, California’s newly elected Governor, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to drastically reform health care in the state. Executive Order N-01-19 introduced a number of actions and budget proposals to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and health care. One measure, in...
2019 has been a busy year for healthcare legislation in Texas and one bill, in particular, aimed to carve out PBM’s entirely. House Representative J.D. Sheffield (R) introduced HB 3388 on March 6th in an attempt to reform the delivery of prescription drugs to a...
At the beginning of the year, California’s governor signed an executive order directing DHCS to adopt a fee-for-service model for Medi-Cal. Under the order, California would consolidate its purchasing power and leverage the state’s population size to achieve lower drug costs by purchasing in...
Since state Medicaid programs are responsible for the healthcare of several populations, skyrocketing prescription drug costs have become a major budgetary concern. Currently, health care spending is dominating many of their budgets and on a per capita basis, inflation-adjusted retail prescription drug spending has increased...
In 2018’s legislative session, 45 laws were passed by 28 states to address the problem of prescription drug costs. Apart from these legislative efforts, administrative actions are also being taken to improve the management of Medicaid pharmacy benefits spending. Ohio, West Virginia, and California are...
California’s newly elected governor; Gavin Newsom (D) has recently made a legislative step to address skyrocketing drug prices. Shortly after he was sworn in last week, Newsom signed an executive order making the state responsible for negotiating drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. In addition,...