The biggest lobby for senior citizens came out in favor of a major overhaul in how Medicare pays doctors for certain pharmaceuticals.
AARP said Wednesday that it supports the federal government’s decision to experiment on new ways to get doctors to prescribe less expensive drugs. The move comes against stiff opposition to the government proposal from Republicans and 300 groups.
The proposal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services focuses on drugs reimbursed under Medicare Part B, which pays for treatments normally administered in a doctor’s office or health center. Examples include chemotherapy drugs and other cancer treatments.
CMS is concerned that under the current payment structure, doctors get reimbursed more for prescribing higher cost drugs, as providers get the average sales price for a drug plus 6 percent.
CMS wants to change that additional payment to 2.5 percent and a fee of about $16, AARP said.
AARP said Medicare Part B spent $22 billion on prescription drugs last year, double the amount from 2007.
“This spending escalation is simply unsustainable,” said Nancy LeaMond, chief advocacy and engagement officer at AARP.
While the proposal, which still needs to be finalized by CMS, won plaudits from healthcare economists, it has been met with skepticism from others in the healthcare community.
A collection of more than 300 groups wrote to CMS recently asking for the agency to scrap the experiments because of worries about patient access.
Republicans in Congress have echoed the same concerns, but CMS officials have emphasized that the experiments won’t hinder access to treatments.
The agency has said that the experiments are part of a larger effort by the Obama administration to link payments to healthcare quality.
