CMS wants to narrow Medicare drug plan options

CMS is looking at ways to further "focus the number" of Medicare Part D drug plans to "really meaningful differences with respect to benefit plans and formularies," Tracey McCutcheon, deputy director of the agency's Medicare Drug Benefit Group, said at a Nov. 5 Alliance for Health Reform event. She said later that CMS is collecting data to "find a basis for cutting down on so many options," though it is struggling "to find a policy reason to negotiate away bids." For 2007 and 2008, CMS asked sponsors to limit bids to two plans unless a third plan offered a meaningful difference, such as gap coverage...