The Trump administration says it will try to soften the blow for industry as it prepares to overhaul part of the drug-pricing system — a potential acknowledgement that its plan may happen on time.
Driving the news: Trump has proposed eliminating drug-pricing rebates in Medicare Part D, beginning in 2020. But Medicare and Medicaid administrator Seema Verma said in a memo today that insurers and pharmacy benefit managers can assume rebates will still exist as they design their 2020 plans.
Employers are the linchpin of the U.S. health care system. But they don't always act like it.
The big picture: Employers play a minor role in the political debate over health care costs, but they have a lot on the line — and a lot more political muscle than they're choosing to flex. An increasingly bipartisan cadre of policy experts is trying to tell them that staying on the sidelines is both counterproductive and unsustainable.
