HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra (Andrew Harnik/AP Images)

Medicare does­n't re­duce its 2022 pre­mi­um hike even as use of Bio­gen's Alzheimer's drug is sharply cur­tailed

The prospect of the Cen­ters for Medicare & Med­ic­aid Ser­vices (CMS) pay­ing for Bio­gen’s con­tro­ver­sial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm opened up a mul­ti-bil­lion-dol­lar can of worms late last year that CMS now says it won’t right un­til 2023, leav­ing the agency with lit­tle ex­pla­na­tion for ma­jor pre­mi­um and de­ductible in­creas­es for se­niors this year.

Back in No­vem­ber 2021, CMS ex­plained that Medicare Part B will have to in­crease its stan­dard month­ly pre­mi­um — from $148.50 in 2021 to $170.10 in 2022 — in part be­cause of the mas­sive spend­ing that could oc­cur should the agency sign off on a na­tion­al cov­er­age de­ci­sion for Aduhelm, and its $56,000 an­nu­al price tag next year.

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