{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/republican-leaders-blast-unprecedented-cms-decision-to-severely-limit-access-to-lifesaving-cures", "Republican Leaders Blast Unprecedented CMS Decision to Severely Limit Access to Lifesaving Cures", "2022-05-02", "2022", "2022-05", "Republican", "Senate", "ID", "Mike Crapo", "C000880", "www.crapo.senate.gov", "crapo", "https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C.--Republican leaders of the Senate and House Committees with oversight of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are raising concerns with a recent decision to severely restrict coverage of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Alzheimer\u2019s treatment and any similar future treatments, in a disturbing break with precedent.\n\nIn a letter to CMS, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Ranking Member Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), House Ways and Means Republican Leader Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and House Energy and Commerce Republican Leader Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington) outline how the decision departs from precedent and creates dire new concerns, and ask for information on how CMS arrived at its decision.\n\nFrom the letter:\n\n\u201cOn various fronts, the national coverage determination issued by the agency strays from precedent, subordinates the clinical judgment and expertise of the Food and Drug Administration, and suggests a problematic new standard that risks chilling innovation and jeopardizing access to the cutting-edge treatments of the future. We urge CMS to reconsider this approach and to operate within the bounds of its statutory authorities and directives, which this latest decision oversteps.\u201d\n\nThe members outline a number of problems with the final decision, including that:\n\nCMS has never before restricted Medicare access (through CED) to an FDA-approved indication (use) of a drug or biologic.\n\nThe decision restricts access to an entire class of FDA-approved drugs based on a single drug\u2019s clinical trial results.\n\nCMS\u2019s decision inappropriately supplants FDA\u2019s authority and exceeds its own.\n\nUnder the decision, many beneficiaries will receive a placebo, and some may even need to pay cost-sharing for it.\n\nCMS has never before disadvantaged drugs approved via FDA\u2019s accelerated approval pathway, which has led to hundreds of approvals for drugs treating cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other life-threatening conditions. The decision risks deterring and eroding the pathway, meaning delayed access to treatments.\n\nFull-benefit dually eligible (Medicaid and Medicare) beneficiaries will have no access to these drugs outside of the stringent CED standards, even though other Medicaid enrollees will have access to these products (potentially subject to utilization management).\n\nThis decision could chill investment in high-risk R&D, particularly for Alzheimer\u2019s treatments.\n\nFull text of the letter is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:29:07Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/republican-leaders-blast-unprecedented-cms-decision-to-severely-limit-access-to-lifesaving-cures"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8214730769395828, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}