On April 11, 2019, the Massachusetts House Committee on Ways and Means released its FY 2020 budget (H.3800).  The legislation includes provisions authorizing MassHealth (the Massachusetts Medicaid program) to negotiate supplemental rebates directly with drug manufacturers, and provides for further proceedings before the Health Policy Commission for manufacturers refusing to negotiate supplemental rebates at levels satisfactory to the Commonwealth. These provisions represent amendments to a MassHealth drug pricing proposal included in Governor Baker’s…

Happy New Year! While healthcare developments have been relatively slow lately due the ongoing partial Federal shutdown, an important story did arise over the most recent Holidays. We previously wrote  about a lawsuit filed in November 2017 by a group of hospital trade associations against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) opposing a major change in Medicare reimbursement policy when 340B hospitals purchase drugs under the 340B program for use in the hospital…

On December 13, 2018, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) held its December 2018 public meeting. Dr. Paul Jeffrey, the Director of Pharmacy for MassHealth, spoke on MassHealth’s drug pricing approach, in particular with respect to a drug pipeline he described as “alarming” in terms of cost but “sensational” in terms of potential impact.  Although Dr. Jeffrey suggested that implementing a closed formulary would require waiver authority (which CMS denied Massachusetts last…