Dr Mark Fendrick Discusses Equity-Focused Elements of the Inflation Reduction Act

Several elements of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) align with CMS’ goals of promoting equity through health policy, explained A. Mark Fendrick, MD, co–editor in chief of The American Journal of Managed Care^® and director of the V-BID Center at the University of Michigan.

Transcript

How will the elements of the IRA mesh with CMS’ efforts to overhaul payment models with an eye toward ensuring health equity?

Having worked in the area of equity enhancement and disparity reduction for 30 years, I'm extremely pleased to see the attention that this administration and this law in particular pays to enhancing equity. Specifically around the area of access and affordability, we've shown quite clearly that if you make people pay more for something, they'll buy less of it. And there's no surprise that the burden of out-of-pocket costs falls disproportionately on populations of color, those with multiple chronic conditions, and those who are financially insecure. So any policies such as an out-of-pocket cap for Medicare Part D, a decrease in out-of-pocket costs for D-rated vaccines, or broader issues that are included in this bill regarding access and affordability will hopefully lead to disproportionate benefit of these same populations of color and financial insecurity to benefit that. So I'm cautiously optimistic that many of these policies will make a small step forward regarding equity enhancement, and we're hopeful that these will mesh nicely with other CMS and CMMI initiatives to put equity enhancement first.