Advocates’ Frustration Mounts Amid CMS Inaction on Copay Accumulators

  • Apr 11, 2024

    Although a newly finalized health insurance regulation clocks in at 748 pages, it is missing something patient advocates have been eagerly hoping to see: language stating CMS will enforce a court ruling regarding the use of copay accumulator programs. Due to that omission, a patient advocacy group says it is once again exploring its legal options to curtail the practice in which payers prevent drug manufacturer coupons from applying toward patients’ out-of-pocket cost obligations.

    Patients and advocacy groups for years have filed official comments on the annual Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (NBPP), urging federal officials to curtail the use of copay accumulator programs, according to Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “And every year, they’ve completely ignored those comments,” he tells AIS Health, a division of MMIT.

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  • Leslie Small

    Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.

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