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What We're Reading: Medicare Part D Cost Strategy; Drug Pricing Not in Budget Deal; Norovirus at Olympics
President Trump will reportedly unveil a Medicare Part D cost strategy next week; a bipartisan drug pricing measure was left out of the budget deal; hand sanitizer is popping up all over the Winter Olympics in South Korea in an effort to fight back against a norovirus outbreak.
Trump Reportedly to Unveil Medicare Part D Cost Strategy Next Week
President Donald Trump will propose lowering prescription drug costs for Medicare Part D by allowing beneficiaries to share in rebates that drug companies pay to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, an administration official told the Associated Press. The White House will release its 2019 budget plan next week.
Bipartisan Drug Pricing Bill Left Out of Budget Deal
A bipartisan drug pricing measure was left out of the budget deal signed by Trump on Friday morning, The Hill reports. The bill would keep branded drug companies from using delay tactics to prevent cheaper generic competitors from coming onto the market. Drug pricing advocates blamed the bill's omission from the budget deal on the pharmaceutical industry, which had lobbied hard against the measure.
Hand Sanitizer Used to Combat Winter Olympics Norovirus Outbreak
A required item at the Winter Olympics, according to The New York Times, are bottles and bottles of 62% ethanol hand sanitizer. An outbreak of norovirus in Pyeongchang, South Korea, has infected 128 so far. Anyone entering the cafeteria in the athletes’ village is required to use sanitizer before going to the buffet, the paper reported.
Stuck in Prior Auth Purgatory: The Hidden Costs of Health Care Delays
June 19th 2025Delays, denials, and endless paperwork—prior authorization isn’t just a headache for providers; it’s a barrier for patients who need timely care, explains Colin Banas, MD, MHA, chief medical officer with DrFirst.
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FDA Expands Access to Approved CAR T-Cell Therapies by Eliminating REMS
June 30th 2025The FDA has removed Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) for approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for hematologic malignancies, aiming to ease provider burden and expand patient access.
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