Medicare limits coverage of $28,000-a-year Alzheimer’s drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare says it will limit coverage of a $28,000-a-year Alzheimer’s drug whose benefits have been widely questioned. Tuesday’s (Jan. 11, 2022) decision from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is a major development in the nation’s tug-of-war over the fair value of new medicines that offer tantalizing possibilities but come with prohibitive prices. It means that for Medicare to pay, patients taking Biogen’s Aduhelm medication will have to be part of clinical trials to assess the drug’s effectiveness in slowing the progression of dementia. Biogen said Tuesday that it disagrees with the Medicare decision.