STAT+: Medicare holds firm on Alzheimer’s drug coverage policy
Despite pressure from Congress and advocates, CMS isn’t changing its coverage plan for new Alzheimer’s drugs anytime soon.
WASHINGTON — Despite pressure from Congress and advocates, Medicare isn’t changing its coverage plan for new Alzheimer’s drugs anytime soon.
Medicare on Thursday issued a statement reiterating its intent to require patient registries to collect data about how medications perform even after they gain full Food and Drug Administration approval. Eisai’s Leqembi could gain full approval within the next month, so time is running short for the agency to solidify details.
Right now, Leqembi and Biogen’s Aduhelm only have accelerated approval from the FDA, and are subject to even more restrictive coverage limits that require patients to be enrolled in a clinical trial to receive the medications. If Leqembi wins full approval, those restrictions will relax slightly, but providers would still need to collect data about all patients who receive the drugs in a patient registry. Medicare had previously announced that plan in April 2022.
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