Trump administration denies Massachusetts’ bid to control drug costs

The Trump administration shot down Massachusetts’ request to try to rein in high drug costs by restricting coverage of certain drugs under Medicaid.

Massachusetts would have been the first state to experiment with creating a closed formulary, or list of approved drugs, if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had approved it. But the agency said the state would have to forgo all manufacturer rebates under the plan, and the state had wanted to continue receiving them.