Nursing Homes and the AMA, Once Medicaid Defenders, Hang Back as GOP Mulls Big Cuts

When congressional Republicans in 2017 pushed to repeal the Affordable Care Act and slash Medicaid, dozens of physician groups, patient advocates, hospitals, and others rallied to defend the law and the safety-net program. Eight years later, two industry groups have been notably restrained as GOP lawmakers consider sweeping new Medicaid cuts: the American Medical Association…

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Do US commercial payers consider HTA and economic evidence when making coverage decisions?

That is the question asked in a new paper by Enright, et al. (2025). The authors use the Tufts Medical Center Specialty Drug Evidence and Coverage (SPEC) database current as of August 2023.  This database contains publicly available specialty pharmacy coverage decisions as issued by 18 large US commercial health plans, which—collectively—cover 200m people (i.e.,…

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