Stopgap funding bill includes sweeping PBM reform, preserves telehealth flexibilities
Healthcare DIVE December 18, 2024
Lawmakers Tuesday night released the full text of a bipartisan agreement to fund the government through March.
Legislators reached a bipartisan agreement to fund the federal government on Tuesday in a sweeping package that includes a number of important provisions for healthcare, including a two-year extension of Medicare’s telehealth flexibilities and payment relief for doctors.
Yet, perhaps the most significant healthcare reforms in the stopgap funding bill released late Tuesday are changes to how controversial middlemen in the drug supply chain, called pharmacy benefit managers, do business.
The bill would force PBMs to pass through 100% of rebates to sponsors of prescription drug plans in Medicare and the group health market. The middlemen would be prohibited from billing Medicaid states...