The Obama administration has relented and will not to move forward with a controversial plan to pay doctors less for drugs they administer in their offices such as chemotherapy.
The administration announced late Thursday that it wouldn’t go forward with the experiment to Medicare Part B, which reimburses doctors for drugs administered in their office. The goal of the experiment was to get doctors to prescribe drugs based on value instead of choosing the most expensive drugs, but it met fierce pushback from Republicans.
“While there was a great deal of support from some, a number of stakeholders expressed strong concerns about the Model,” said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid spokesman Aaron Albright. “While CMS was working to address these concerns, the complexity of the issues and the limited time available led to the decision not to finalize the rule at this time.”
Currently, doctors reimbursements are the average sales price of a drug plus an additional six percent. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed changing it to 2 percent and a small fee of $16 per drug.
But the plan to get doctors to prescribe cheaper drugs was rejected by the GOP and major patient advocacy groups, such as the American Cancer Society. That group’s lobbying arm said the change could result in more oncologists leaving their practice for fear of not getting enough money. Chemotherapy drugs are one of the products that doctors get reimbursed for under Part B, which also covers doctor visits.
But the powerful AARP was in favor of the experiment. AARP previously said that the experiment could have lowered drug prices for seniors, who are already dealing with such higher prices.
Republicans applauded the decision to scrap it.
“After months of growing concerns, I’m glad the administration listened to America’s seniors and the Congress, and chose to withdraw this harmful Medicare experiment,” said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., in a statement. Upton is the outgoing chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee.
The center that was going to administer the experiment is also in doubt. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation was created under Obamacare to explore new models for delivering payments and care, but has come under fire from Republicans who say it bypasses their authority in crafting the demonstrations.
Republicans have set their sights on repealing Obamacare soon after President-elect Trump is inaugurated.
