Trump ups the stakes with 'grand­dad­dy of them al­l' drug pric­ing ex­ec­u­tive or­der. But he could be run­ning out of time

When Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump signed four ex­ec­u­tive or­ders in late Ju­ly aim­ing at low­er­ing drug prices, de­tails of the most con­tro­ver­sial — “the grand­dad­dy of them all,” ac­cord­ing to Trump — were con­spic­u­ous­ly miss­ing.

Al­most two months lat­er, the text is fi­nal­ly here. And it’s al­ready been ex­pand­ed.

The EO in­structs Health and Hu­man Ser­vices Sec­re­tary Alex Azar to test a pay­ment mod­el in which Medicare would pay no more than the “most-fa­vored-na­tion price” for doc­tor and out­pa­tient ser­vices (Part B) as well as pre­scrip­tion drugs (Part D). While rule-mak­ing plans were al­ready in place for the for­mer, reg­u­la­tions for the lat­ter re­quire a sep­a­rate, new process.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER