Final 2025 NBPP Addresses Copay Maximizers, Is Silent on Accumulators

  • Apr 11, 2024

    While CMS has thus far declined to take action on companies using copayment accumulators, the agency is moving forward to prohibit the use of a similar type of program, it revealed in the final 2025 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (NBPP). Still, the rule — at least at this point — applies only to certain plan sponsors, and it is unclear how manufacturer patient assistance ultimately will be treated.

    Several years ago, health plans and PBMs began implementing copay accumulators to counter manufacturer copay assistance programs. A next-generation version of these tools known as copay maximizers soon followed.

    Before these tools, manufacturer assistance would count toward beneficiaries’ annual out-of-pocket expenses. When those out-of-pocket maximums were reached, health plans would cover the remainder of members’ costs for the year.

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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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