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Brand Pharma Spends More On Stock Buybacks And Marketing Than R&D A report from Accountable, a nonpartisan watchdog group, found that brand drug makers spent more on stock buybacks, marketing, and other related spending than on research and development (R&D). Accountable said the companies spent $95.9 billion on R&D expenditures in 2023, but spent 70% more on stock buybacks, dividends, and marketing and administrative costs. It also found that the companies spent nearly $500 million collectively on executive and board compensation, at least $83.2 million on trade association dues, $10.6 million on political contributions and $57.8 million on lobbying. This is consistent with a report from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, and Democrats on the Senate HELP Committee. Accountable argues that these are areas that spending could be reduced to offset any potential impact on margins and a commensurate reduction in R&D due to Medicare drug price negotiations. As they always

CMS Published Recalculated 2024 Medicare Advantage Star Scores The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) made public its revised Star scores for 2024 for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans today. The agency will have to fund an additional $1.3 billion after being rebuked by two courts on how it ignored regulations when setting guardrails for 2024. Actuarial firm Milliman says seventy-six MA contracts from 44 insurers (with almost 3.5 million members) saw increased Star scores. (Article may require a subscription.) #medicareadvantage #stars #cms https://www.modernhealthcare.com/medicare/medicare-advantage-star-ratings-recalculation-scan-elevance Application Backlogs And Lagging Redeterminations In Medicaid Healthcare policy advocates are reporting that more states might be falling behind in processing Medicaid applications due to all going on with redeterminations.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently said nine states and the District of Columbia will go past the June 2024 deadline for processing redeterminations. (Article may require a subscription.) #medicaid #coverage #redeterminations https://insidehealthpolicy.com/daily-news/latest-unwinding-data-show-states-falling-behind-medicaid-application-processing