Pharmaceutical lobby fails again to advance ‘doughnut hole’ fix: Sources

Published September 25, 2018 8:50pm ET



A legislative package designed to help address the opioid crisis will not include the “doughnut hole” fix, a key provision sought by the pharmaceutical lobby to lower the portion of the cost of a drug the industry must cover under Medicare, sources told the Washington Examiner.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America was trying to insert a measure into the bill, expected to be finalized as early as Tuesday evening, to overturn a provision included in a February government spending bill that will force the drug industry in 2019 to begin to cover 70 percent of the price of treatments offered in the Medicare Part D program.

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