Medicare’s Six Protected Classes

Partnership for Part D Access, a collection of healthcare stakeholders, sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that was signed by more than 140 organizations—including the National Register—”in opposition to a recent proposal that would establish broad exceptions to Medicare Part D’s protected classes policy.”

The letter provides information regarding this concern:

Currently, Part D plans are statutorily required, with limited exceptions, to include all drugs of these six classes on their formularies: (1) anticonvulsants, (2) antidepressants, (3) antineoplastics, (4) antipsychotics, (5) antiretrovirals, and (6) immunosuppressants. Under the proposed rule, CMS seeks to advance a much more extensive set of exceptions to the protected classes policy than Congress has previously allowed or that an extensive body of literature and data analysis would support.

Read the full letter (PDF) from 1.25.19