Our AMA will advocate that any revised Medicare Part B Competitive Acquisition Program meet the following standards to improve the value of the program by lowering the cost of drugs without undermining quality of care:

(1) it must be genuinely voluntary and not penalize practices that choose not to participate;

(2) it should provide supplemental payments to reimburse for costs associated with special handling and storage for Part B drugs;

(3) it must not reduce reimbursement for services related to provision/administration of Part B drugs, and reimbursement should be indexed to an appropriate healthcare inflation rate;

(4) it should permit flexibility such as allowing for variation in orders that may occur on the day of treatment, and allow for the use of CAP-acquired drugs at multiple office locations;

(5) it should allow practices to choose from multiple vendors to ensure competition, and should also ensure that vendors meet appropriate safety and quality standards;

(6) it should include robust and comprehensive patient protections which include preventing delays in treatment, helping patients find assistance or alternative payment arrangements if they cannot meet the cost-sharing responsibility, and vendors should bear the risk of non-payment of patient copayments in a way that does not penalize the physician;

(7) it should not allow vendors to restrict patient access using utilization management policies such as step therapy; and

(8) it should not force disruption of current systems which have evolved to ensure patient access to necessary medications.

Policy Timeline
Res. 216, I-18 Reaffirmed: CMS Rep. 4, A-22