CMS has taken a step in its ongoing efforts to manage healthcare costs by extending the negotiation timeline for Medicare drug price cuts. This decision, announced on Wednesday, is part of a broader strategy to ensure that the process is both fair and effective. CMS is tasked with selecting the costliest prescription medications for negotiation by February 1, with new prices set to take effect in 2027. This initiative is being closely monitored by pharmaceutical manufacturers, particularly those producing the 15 drugs most likely to be chosen for these negotiations.
CVS Health said Monday that they are planning to lay off 2,900 employees nationwide, including Hartford-based health insurer Aetna, saying they'll be able to share more detail on the impact in Connecticut after the corporation files official notice with the Department of Labor. CVS spokesperson Mike DeAngelis said the company is planning on the job cuts as part of a plan to increase cost savings by $2 billion over the next several years through "reducing expenses and investing in technologies to enhance how we work." The company previously noted that those technologies included more "artificial intelligence and automation." "To achieve this goal and position for sustainable growth, we will reduce our workforce by less than 1 percent- approximately 2,900 colleagues across CVS Health," DeAngelis said. "Impacted positions are primarily corporate roles. The reductions will not impact front-line jobs in our stores, pharmacies, and distribution centers."
Health insurance companies that are the biggest players in privatized Medicare Advantage coverage are pulling back a little bit after years expanding their geographic footprints even while they offer new benefits. With more than half of the nation's eligible seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, competition has been fierce offering seniors more lucrative benefits and more choices. But this fall, seniors will find during open enrollment that many of these plans including Aetna, Cigna, Humana and some regional insurers and startups are no longer offering Medicare Advantage in certain states and counties for the 2025 health benefit year.
Sentara Health is cutting nearly 200 positions, the company said in a statement shared with News 3 on Friday. The company says the cuts are due to the Medicaid redetermination process, which resulted in a significant decline in Medicaid membership across the U.S. and in Virginia.
Average premiums and benefits for Medicare's prescription drug program and private Medicare plans are projected to remain stable in 2025 with premiums slightly declining, CMS announced. The premiums are of interest to consumers enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers who are then paid by the government, and the health plans themselves, who set premiums and benefits based on the reimbursement rates. The government has been trying bring down MA prices to the level of original Medicare. Private health insurers had argued cutting their rates would limit what benefits they offer, but the government's projections show they remain stable.
In the latest slap at a pharmaceutical company by a local government, the city of Baltimore has filed a lawsuit accusing Biogen of striking an "unlawful" scheme with the largest pharmacy benefit managers to block generic competition of a best-selling multiple sclerosis treatment. The effort allegedly originated as Biogen planned to fend off generic companies that hoped to sell lower-cost alternatives to Tecfidera which, several years ago, had been a franchise product and generated nearly half of its revenue. With looming patent expirations, Biogen sought to market a "next generation" version called Vumerity and convince doctors to switch patients to the newer drug.