A conversation with CMS Administrator Seema Verma

Today, 43 million Americans have prescription drug coverage through Medicare Part D, roughly double the number since the program’s introduction in 2006. In the wake of fast-growing drug prices and the rise of specialty drugs, renewed attention has focused on reforming Part D’s benefit structure and providing plans with more tools to obtain lower drug prices. The Trump administration has issued a series of recommendations in their “Blueprint to Lower Drug Prices” and the president’s budget, and the administration has already begun to advance several pricing reforms through regulation.

On October 18, the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy hosted Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, for a discussion about Medicare Part D and what can be done to improve the program. Following her presentation, Ms. Verma sat down with USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics Director Dana Goldman for an interview. A panel of experts then discussed the administrator’s comments and related issues in the Medicare Part D program.