Through grant funding from The Commonwealth Fund, Waxman Strategies has been doing policy analysis around the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). One area of particular focus for our team is the new authority granted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to negotiate prescription drug prices in Medicare, and how the agency is approaching these first-ever Medicare drug negotiations with manufacturers.  

As part of that work, our Managing Director, Jeremy Sharp, and Director of Health Policy, Kate Meyer, authored a blog series to explain each step in the negotiation process and explore opportunities for CMS to continue successful negotiation processes in the future. Read all three blogs in the series at the links below:  

CMS Set to Negotiate with Pharmaceutical Manufacturers on Drug Prices explores how CMS has worked to create a good-faith negotiation with manufacturers, explains each step in the novel process, and identifies the ways CMS is encouraging manufacturer engagement throughout the entire negotiation. 

Determining the Right Offer Price in Medicare Drug Negotiations examines the benefits and drawbacks of using therapeutic alternatives, one of the nine factors CMS must consider during the negotiation process, as the basis for an initial offer price.  

New Confidentiality and Transparency Provisions Are Critical to Successful Medicare Drug Price Negotiations, explores the ways in which CMS has gone beyond the IRA requirements to encourage a good-faith negotiation with manufacturers that inspires trust by balancing confidentiality and transparency measures.