The National Association of Chain Drug Stores, citing a report from Inside Health Policy, notes that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is set finalize the Medicaid average manufacturer price (AMP)-based federal upper limits (FULs) this year, after the agency said in November it would release the final FULs around the same time as the Medicaid Covered Outpatient Drug final rule.
CMS, which had planned to finalize the FULs last July, is required by the Affordable Care Act to recalculate FULs.
That has NACDS and other pharmacy stakeholders, as well as states, watching. The association and a coalition of stakeholders, recognizing that the time between the proposed issuance of the final rule and the implementation of AMP-based FULs would not give states sufficient time to effectively comply, approached CMS early last year to implement a transition period. Also, a bipartisan group of 49 House members and nine Senators wrote letters to then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging her to implement the transition period.
NACDS said it will monitor the final FULs when they are released to ensure they’re consistent with the statute, and that states will have enough time to implement the new pricing.
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