CMS Places All No-Cost PrEP Coverage in Medicare Part B

  • Oct 10, 2024

    After taking several steps to prepare — including releasing a fact sheet, posting a technical frequently asked questions for pharmacies and launching an informational website for health care providers — CMS on Sept. 30 issued a final National Coverage Determination on Medicare coverage of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Effective immediately, coverage for PrEP will be under Medicare Part B — including oral agents previously covered under Part D — where it will be available at no cost to beneficiaries, a move that should increase adherence to treatment, industry experts say.

    “At face value, moving coverage to Part B helps ensure that all Medicare recipients will have access to the HIV PrEP, as opposed to depending upon patients with stand-alone or carved-out prescription benefits to access PrEP through their prescription benefit,” observes Winston Wong, Pharm.D., president of the W-Squared Group. “I don’t believe there is any question of coverage since CMS issued an NCD, which mandates all Part D plans meet the minimum coverage requirements; however, I don’t believe carve-out prescription benefits for retirees are required to provide comparable coverage to CMS.”

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  • Angela Maas

    Angela has an extensive background of editing, reporting and writing for trade and consumer publications. She has written Radar on Specialty Pharmacy since she joined AIS Health in 2005 and has broad knowledge of the various issues at play within the space. She also has written for Spotlight on Market Access since its 2017 launch. Before joining AIS Health, she was managing editor at Employee Benefit News and Employee Benefit News Canada and managing editor at Hem Aware (a hemophilia publication), Lupus Living and Momentum (a multiple sclerosis publication). She has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in British literature from Arizona State University.

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