Labor & Employment Developments Blog

In our August Monthly Minute, we touched on the precarious future of drug accumulator programs in light of recently released guidance that appeared to significantly limit their application and usefulness from a cost-management perspective.  Some of those fears have just been put to rest – for the time being. On August 26, 2019, new guidance was released that acknowledged certain ambiguities about the treatment of drug manufacturer’s coupons in circumstances other than in which there is a medically appropriate generic equivalent available. Although the new guidance did not actually rectify the ambiguity, it did provide that clarifying rulemaking will be forthcoming for 2021. And, perhaps more importantly, until the 2021 rulemaking is issued and effective, the Departments stated that they will not initiate enforcement action if a group health plan excludes the value of drug manufacturers’ coupons from the annual limitation on cost sharing, including in circumstances in which there is no medically appropriate generic equivalent available. In short, this is good news for your 2020 accumulator program.