All about the Inflation Reduction Act and Medicare

17-07-2025

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aims to address the increasing costs of prescription medications, particularly under Medicare. It also authorizes Medicare drug price negotiations and manufacturer rebates.President Joe Biden signed the IRA in 2022 to minimize the effects of growing healthcare costs in the United States.The Inflation Reduction Act provides free vaccinations and caps on many out-of-pocket drug expenses for people with Medicare.The act also allows Medicare to negotiate some drug prices with drug manufacturers, which is a historical first.How the Inflation Reduction Act impacts MedicareSince President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, changes have and continue to be implemented, with more due over the coming years. These include:Drug manufacturers to make rebates to Medicare: From 2023 onward, drug manufacturers started paying Medicare rebates for medications included in Part D prescription drug plans if the price increases for those drugs exceeded the rate of inflation. This has meant a much slower overall cost increase for many medications.Insulin cost caps: Under the Medicare prescription medication benefit, insulin prices were capped at $35 from October 1, 2022, until January 1, 2024. After this date, insulin was either capped at $35 or 25% of a plan's negotiated price, whichever was less. This applies even if a person has not met their Part D prescription drug plan deductible.Extra Help availability has increased: In 2024, Medicare's Extra Help program changes meant more people were eligible and experienced greater savings on prescription drugs. If a person qualifies for Extra Help, they will pay a $0 premium and deductible for their Part D prescription drug plan, as well as the following out-of-pocket expenses: No more than $4.90 for generic drugs.No more than $12.15 for brand-name drugs.Once individuals have paid a total of $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, they will pay no further medication costs for the remainder of the calendar year. This is predicted to rise to $2,100 in 2026.Drug price negotiationsMedicare now has the legal authority to directly negotiate prices of specific, high cost medications. Starting in 2026, these Medicare-negotiated drug prices will begin to take effect.Different medications have been selected for negotiation over the coming years. There are 10 drugs for the 2026 negotiations, and 15 drugs for the 2027 negotiations. These are:10 drugs for 2026 Medicare negotiationsEliquis, which prevents and treats blood clotsEnbrel, which treats rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, and psoriasisEntresto, which treats heart failureFarxiga, which treats diabetes, heart failure, and chronic kidney diseaseFiasp, Fiasp FlexTouch, Fiasp PenFill, NovoLog, NovoLog FlexPen, NovoLog PenFill, which treat diabetesImbruvica, which treats different kinds of blood cancerJanuvia, which treats diabetesJardiance, which treats diabetes and heart failureStelara, which treats psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitisXarelto, which prevents and treats blood clots, and reduces risks for people with coronary or peripheral artery disease15 drugs for 2027 Medicare negotiationsAustedo and Austedo XR, which treat chorea in Huntington's disease and tardive dyskinesiaBreo Ellipta, which treats asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseCalquence, which treats chronic lymphocytic leukemia, small lymphocytic lymphoma, and mantle cell lymphomaJanumet and Janumet XR, which treat type 2 diabetesIbrance, which treats breast cancerLinzess, which treats chronic idiopathic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome with constipationOfev, which treats idiopathic pulmonary fibrosisOtezla, oral ulcers in Behçet disease, plaque psoriasis, and psoriatic arthritisOzempic, Rybelsus,and Wegovy, which treat type 2 diabetes, type 2 diabetes with cardiovascular disease, and obesity with cardiovascular diseasePomalyst, which treats Kaposi sarcoma and multiple myelomaTradjenta, which treats type 2 diabetesTrelegy Ellipta, which treats asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseaseVraylar, which treats bipolar I disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophreniaXifaxan, which treats hepatic encephalopathy and irritable bowel syndrome with diarrheaXtandi, which treats prostate cancerStarting from 2028, Medicare will include some Part B prescription medications in its drug negotiations. The specific drugs have not yet been announced.SummaryThe Inflation Reduction Act seeks to save people money on their prescription drugs in many ways, and these cost savings should continue in the near future.A greater number of older adults with limited income and resources can access Medicare's Extra Help, and the drug negotiations taking place until 2029 could result in higher drug savings for everyone with Medicare.

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Medical News Today

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Medical News Today

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Researchers are actively seeking treatments or a cure for Alzheimer's diseaseOne current research avenue is to look at currently-approved medications that are used for other diseases, an approach that is called drug repurposing. A new study has identified two cancer medications that may help overturn brain changes caused by Alzheimer's disease, possibly slowing or even reversing the disease's symptoms. Researchers all over the world are actively seeking treatments or a cure for Alzheimer's disease — a form of dementia currently impacting about 32 million people globally. The medications used right now for Alzheimer's disease are designed to only help treat symptoms and slow disease progression. One avenue scientists are taking in an effort to find treatments for Alzheimer's disease is by looking at currently-approved medications that are used for other diseases, an approach called drug repurposing. 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Focusing on cancer drugs letrozole and irinotecanFor this study, researchers began by using past studies to assess how Alzheimer's disease changed gene expression in brain cells, mainly neurons and glia. 'Glia cells are non-neuronal cells that provide support and protection to neurons in the nervous system,' Sirota explained. 'By targeting both neuronal cells and non-neuronal cells (glia) we hope to be able to more comprehensively target disease pathophysiology.' From there, scientists then took the gene expression signatures they found and used a database called the ConnectivityMap, allowing them to examine thousands of drugs to find ones that reversed the Alzheimer's disease gene expression signature.'We started with a set of 1,300 drugs and narrowed it down to the combination of letrozole and irinotecan through data driven analysis using both molecular and clinical data,' Sirota said.'We first identified compounds that reversed the cell type specific disease signatures back to normal based on the gene expression profiles. We then further filtered the list to the candidates that affect several cell types,' she explained.'Then we wanted to see whether patients who are on those drugs already have a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease by querying electronic medical records across the UC system,' she continued. 'This has allowed us to narrow our list down to a handful of drugs and focus on this combination.' The analysis of electronic medical records did indeed show that both drugs were associated with a significantly lower risk of Alzheimer's disease, confirming the of cancer drugs reverses brain cell damage, reduces protein build-up in mouse modelNext, researchers decided to test the combination of letrozole — used to treat breast cancer — and irinotecan — used to treat colorectal and lung cancer — in a mouse model of aggressive Alzheimer's disease. At the study's conclusion, Sirota and her team found that the drug combination overturned multiple aspects of Alzheimer's disease in the mouse model, including undoing the gene expression signature changes in the neurons and glia caused by the disease. Additionally, researchers found the combination cancer drugs helped reduce the amount of amyloid-beta and tau proteins in the brain, which are known hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. 'This tells us that multiple levels of evidence — molecular data, clinical information and mouse model experiments are all aligning to tell us that these compounds might be helpful for Alzheimer's disease patients,' Sirota further noted that:'While we don't know the exact mechanism of how these drugs work to treat Alzheimer's disease, we know that irinotecan is a chemotherapy drug that works by inhibiting the enzyme DNA topoisomerase I, specifically targeting the S and G2 phases of the cell cycle. Letrozole's mechanism of action involves inhibiting the enzyme aromatase, which is crucial in the biosynthesis of estrogen.''However, we don't know whether it is the main aforementioned mechanisms or off-target effects of these drugs which might help Alzheimer's disease patients,' Sirota cautioned. 'Additional experiments need to be carried out to better understand how these two drugs might work together to combat Alzheimer's disease in patients.'Using 'big data' and inventive approaches to find potential Alzheimer's drug targetsMNT had the opportunity to speak with John Dickson, MD, PhD, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, about this research. 'This is an interesting and innovative paper that uses 'big data' to aid in identifying potential drug targets to treat Alzheimer's disease and then tests candidates in a preclinical model of Alzheimer's disease,' Dickson, who was not involved in this research, said.'Combining the use of transcriptomic data from brain tissue from Alzheimer's disease patients, drug perturbation studies in cell lines, and patient data from electronic medical records was an inventive approach to identifying and narrowing down potential drug targets,' he Dickson's view, 'the decision to use a dual-therapy approach and plan to target multiple cell types with this strategy was also innovative.''The combination of drugs showed beneficial effects on the memory testing and neuropathological findings in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. In addition to identifying two potential candidate therapies for Alzheimer's disease, this paper also provides an experimental paradigm for identifying new drugs to treat a variety of conditions,' he look at repurposing existing drugs for Alzheimer's treatment? MNT also talked to Clifford Segil, DO, a neurologist at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, about this study, who said it is refreshing to see data that supports improving memory loss through a novel mechanism that is not related to current therapies that work on brain acetylcholine, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), or amyloid.'This study's design is smart and the data is captivating,' Segil, who likewise was not involved in the research, added. 'Repurposing medications already being used has been extremely rewarding in neurologists and I truly hope something grows out of this research.' And Peter Gliebus, MD, neurologist and director of cognitive and behavioral neurology at Marcus Neuroscience Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, also not involved in the research, commented to MNT that this was a promising and exciting study, and said that repurposing existing drugs offers several advantages. 'Faster development since these drugs already have established safety profiles, which reduces the time and cost required for clinical trials,' Gliebus noted.'Cost-effectiveness [is achieved] by avoiding the high expenses associated with developing new drugs from scratch. And [this approach has] a broader impact, as many existing drugs may have unexplored mechanisms that could address complex Alzheimer's disease pathologies, such as neuroinflammation, synaptic dysfunction, and metabolic deficits.''Given the high failure rate of Alzheimer's drug trials, repurposing provides a practical and efficient pathway to identify effective treatments,' the neurologist concluded.