Rebate Rule Is Delayed, Likely to Be Repealed by Congress

Feb 06
Feb 06, 2021

The Biden administration will suspend implementation until 2023 of the so-called “rebate rule,” a Trump administration regulation that would have revamped the Medicare prescription drug rebate system. D.C. insiders expect Congress to eliminate the rule before then for budgetary reasons, but say that drug pricing and PBM regulation will be high on the health care agenda after policymakers address the latest issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The suspension comes in response to a suit against the rule by a PBM trade group, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), which sought to overturn the rebate rule on the grounds of its rushed implementation. A court order brokered in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stipulates that all provisions of the final rule that were scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2022, are now postponed until Jan.1, 2023, and it directs the parties involved in the lawsuit to issue a joint status report “identifying whether and how this case should proceed by not later than April 1, 2021.”
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Peter Johnson

Peter has worked as a journalist since 2011 and has covered health care since 2020. At AIS Health, Peter covers trends in finance, business and policy that affect the health insurance and pharma sectors. For Health Plan Weekly, he covers all aspects of the U.S. health insurance sector, including employer-sponsored insurance, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and the Affordable Care Act individual marketplaces. In Radar on Drug Benefits, Peter covers the operations of (and conflicts between) pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, with a particular focus on pricing dynamics and market access. Before joining AIS Health, Peter covered transportation, public safety and local government for various outlets in Seattle, his hometown and current place of residence. He graduated with a B.A. from Colby College.