At the beginning of this year, seniors enrolled in Medicare Part B saw the largest increase in their premiums dollar-wise in the program’s history.
As we previously reported, the large increase came about because of Medicare preparing to pay for the cost of the new drug, Aduhelm, that supposedly helps patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
However, the decision announced by CMS last week to continue to only cover Alzheimer’s patients enrolled in approved clinical trials means that the number of people receiving the drug will be many fewer than previously estimated.
As a result, Medicare said last week that it is considering a cut in enrollee Part B premiums. Lawmakers have called for a rollback and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra already directed Medicare to reassess.
No date was given as to when a final decision might be made nor was there any indication as to how Medicare would go about implementing a lower premium or if the higher premium amount paid so far this year would be rebated in some manner to those enrolled in Part B.
TSCL strongly supports lowering the Part B premium and rebating the higher premiums paid so far this year in some fair and reasonable way.
