Manatt Health Partner Michael Kolber was quoted in MarketWatch on how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) could permit coverage of anti-obesity medications in Medicare.
The article discussed how CMS has historically prohibited coverage of obesity drugs under Medicare Part D, characterizing these medications as weight-loss drugs. Kolber said that CMS could take regulatory action to provide more coverage flexibility, noting that agencies such as CMS and the Food and Drug Administration are “somewhat outliers” in how they approach the treatment of obesity. “When you conceptualize obesity as a disease with a lot of causes and consequences, it makes sense to say these drugs are treating that disease and are not agents solely for weight loss,” he said.
MarketWatch subscribers can read the full article here.
To read Kolber’s white paper on the legal and health policy rationales to cover anti-obesity medications as Medicare Part D drugs, click here.