Trump administration postpones some Medicare drug-cost proposals

The Trump administration has decided to put part of its Medicare drug cost-cutting proposals on hold, for now, announcing that it will not give health plans the authority to negotiate pricing for certain drugs considered protected classes and will not require pharmacies to make sure Medicare patients get the lowest price on prescriptions. The Centres for Medicare and Medicaid said Thursday it will not be implementing its lowest pharmacy price proposal for 2020, after receiving more than 4,000 comments on the rule.CMS is continuing to carefully review these comments as we continue to consider policies that would lower prescription drug costs, address challenges that independent pharmacies face, and improve the quality of pharmacy care,the agency said.