Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Could Expose Pharmacies to Significant Financial Risk | AAP 2025
At the American Associated Pharmacies Annual Conference, Douglas Hoey, RPh, MBA, discussed what needs to change in the program so that it does not hurt pharmacies and patients.
The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program under the Inflation Reduction Act allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to negotiate medication prices directly with drug companies. The program aims to improve access to some of the most expensive brand-name drugs in Medicare Part B and Part D. Although the intention of the program is undoubtedly good, unintended consequences have been discovered and could negatively impact pharmacies across the country.
According to a recent analysis from the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), conducted by 3 Axis Advisors, the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program will expose independent pharmacies to significant financial risk and could disrupt access to critical medications and services for older patients. The analysis found that pharmacies will face prescription payment settlement delays of at least 7 days. This could result in pharmacies losing nearly $11000 in weekly cash flow and $43000 in annual revenue.1’
In a previous NCPA survey released shortly before the analysis, 93.2% of respondents said they already decided either not to stock drugs in the program or that they are considering not stocking them. In a release for the survey, Douglas Hoey, RPh, MBA, CEO of NCPA, said this will have a devastating impact on Medicare, as patients who need the prescriptions will be unable to get them due to their pharmacy not stocking them.2
At the American Associated Pharmacies (AAP) Annual Conference, held April 10 to 12 in Austin, Texas, Drug Topics® sat down Hoey to discuss some of the key findings from the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program analysis and what needs to change so that the program does not hurt independent pharmacies.
“We will see how this plays out,” Hoey said. “[NCPA is] advocating hard with CMS, with the administration, sending them studies to show where the problems are, meeting with them, and talking with members of Congress. But they still seem pretty hellbent on that the marketplace will figure it out. We will see if the marketplace figures it out. I hope it does.”
