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Topics

Prevention beats treatment for everyone — patients, payers and investors.

Preventive antimicrobials: A promising solution to antibiotic resistance

A study of the medical economics of ultraprocessed foods, diabetes and pharmaceutical revenues.

Trump wants RFK Jr. to Make America Healthy Again. This is what they need to know about ultraprocessed foods

What new treatments mean for practices and patients. 

The obesity drug revolution

An expert on antimicrobial resistance discusses how it involves patients in local doctors’ offices and around the world.

AMR: On diagnosing illness, pharmaceutical companies, and global effects

Study examined Amazon’s RxPass to see how it affected medication adherence and cost

Do subscription services for drugs actually work?

Drug prices: Introducing research and patient advocacy group AAR

Drug prices: Another way to interpret negotiations for cost

Drug prices: Expensive, but for whom?

Drug prices: Formulary inclusion vs. formulary placement

Drug prices: Utilization management with insurance and patients

Drug prices: Real benefits for seniors in the Inflation Reduction Act

Drug prices: Additional provisions to help beneficiaries

Drug prices: Medicare coverage of antiobesity medications

Medicare is the single largest health insurer in the United States. Leveraging that beneficiary base to negotiate better prices for drugs sounds like it could be a great idea.

That’s the point of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, created in 2022 by the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

But so far federal regulators have selected drugs that have the greatest cost to Medicare, not its beneficiaries. That means “beneficiaries deserve better,” and there are policies that could make prescription drugs more accessible and affordable to seniors, according to the Alliance for Aging Research (AAR).

AAR director of public policy and government affairs, published a statement responding to the Jan. 17 announcement about the next 15 drugs subject to price negotiation. She also authored an analysis in 

arguing the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could set up regulatory guardrails that ensure greater financial relief for patients.

What’s more: A program intended to help beneficiaries could create barriers to care, she said.

 to discuss the potential unintended side effects of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, as created by the federal Inflation Reduction Act. Talks with federal regulators and pharmaceutical makers began last year to determine prices on 10 drugs, with the new prices to take effect in 2026.

Videos

Bargaining for widely used prescription drugs may save money for Medicare, but AAR wants seniors to see better prices at the pharmacy counter.

Medicare Drug Price Negotiations: Who really benefits?

Weight loss and antiobesity are not the same thing, said Adina Lasser, director of public policy and government affairs with the 

 (AAR). Based on scientific and medical evidence, AAR publicly has stated its support for 

 of the GLP-1 RA antiobesity drugs that have become blockbusters across health care. Here she explains the organization’s stance ono those medications. AAR also commissioned a white paper titled 

“CMS Has the Legal Authority to Cover Anti-Obesity Medications (and Should).”

 It was prepared by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Field LLP and published in 2024. Federal rules have long 

 or classes of drugs when used for “anorexia, weight loss, or weight gain.” But AAR argues that statutory restriction does not prohibit coverage of the antiobesity drugs, according to the paper.

A discussion about the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program with Adina Lasser, director of public policy and government affairs with the Alliance for Aging Research.

U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

 (CMS) could use its existing authorities to put guardrails in place on the 

. Utilization management and increased transparency both could help, said Adina Lasser, director of public policy and government affairs with the 

. The Alliance also published a report with 

 to outline what CMS could do to ensure greater benefits to enrollees.

Under the administration of President Joe Biden, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created the 

. There are concerns about that program and whether it will help beneficiaries save money on their medicines. But there also are real benefits from the IRA. Adina Lasser, director of public policy and government affairs with the 

, explains some of the real wins for beneficiaries in the IRA and the evolution of 

Utilization management can involve a variety of factors, but generally it involves how insurance plans dictate the drugs that patients take. Combined with formulary placement by insurance companies, drug utilization management can be a concern in the 

. Adina Lasser, director of public policy and government affairs with the 

, discusses how insurance companies could require patients to 

 before another one preferred by a physician. The time spent failing on one medicine can create delays in care that cause real-world health effects on patients.

, the Inflation Reduction Act guarantees formulary inclusion, but not formulary placement. That’s a distinction that affects formularies that are tiered, making drugs more or less accessible to patients. Adina Lasser, director of public policy and government affairs with the 

, explains how formulary placement and prescription drug pricing policies could make some medicines less accessible to 

 selects drugs for price talks based on the highest level of gross covered costs to 

, not to beneficiaries. What does that mean? Adina Lasser, director of public policy and government affairs with the 

, explains how costs add up for drugs that may be relatively inexpensive, but that are used by a large number of beneficiaries. That is a different calculation than drugs that cause sticker shock at the pharmacy counter.

Under the administration of President Joe Biden, there were a number of provisions beneficial to 

 through the Inflation Reduction Act. The 

 (AAR) supports those, said Adina Lasser AAR director of public policy and government affairs. But there is a nuance: the 

 has no mechanism for passing along savings to beneficiaries at the pharmacy counter.

 (AAR), based in Washington, D.C., has grown to become a leading patient advocacy organization. The Alliance also works with federal agencies, elected officials and partner organizations “to advance policies that support research and health aging.” Adina Lasser is director of public policy and government affairs for the Alliance. While many have praised the 

 as a means to help beneficiaries, AAR has questioned whether the main motive is to save money for 

. In this video series, Lasser explains that distinction and what it means for patients.

AMR: Responsibilities of other clinicians

The fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can be complicated. But there’s also a way for every clinician to make it simple: Wash your hands. Hand hygiene can make a difference in the spread of disease, and thus against AMR, said Priya Nori, MD, the medical director of antimicrobial stewardship at the Montefiore Health System in the Bronx, New York.

An infectious disease expert describes the state of AMR – and how to fight it.

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