The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services emphasized that the accelerated and advance payments, aimed at providers facing significant cash flow problems, are not loans and cannot be forgiven, in its Saturday announcement.
Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson presented their arguments on Thursday in New Jersey district court, just a week after a similar AstraZeneca suit was dismissed by a federal judge in Delaware.
For now, insurers and employers are still not required to cover certain free preventive care services, such as cancer screenings and HIV-preventing medications, until the federal appeals court makes its decision later this year.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is assisting providers that are struggling financially during what the AMA calls the "most significant and consequential incident of its kind against the U.S. health-care system in history,"
President Joe Biden made health care affordability a centerpiece of Thursday evening's address, announcing he is calling on Congress to expand the $2,000 out-of-pocket Medicare prescription cap to all private insurance.
Cost Plus Drugs CEO Mark Cuban was invited to the White House, along with other business and government leaders, to discuss PBM reform, while a trade group for pharmacy benefit managers said they were not invited.
Sen. Chuck Schumer has urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to intervene in response to the crippling health care ransomware attack by issuing advance payments to providers to lessen their financial burden.