Sen­ate fi­nance chair to HHS: Wait on Bio­gen's Aduhelm NCD pri­or to en­forc­ing his­tor­i­cal­ly steep Medicare pre­mi­um hikes

It’s no longer a se­cret that the US gov­ern­ment is go­ing to have to pay for Bio­gen’s new and ex­pen­sive Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm on the backs of huge in­creas­es in Medicare pre­mi­ums.

CMS ex­plained last month that Medicare Part B will have to in­crease (by the largest amount ever) 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 CMS sign off on a na­tion­al cov­er­age de­ci­sion for Aduhelm, and its $56,000 an­nu­al price tag next year.

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