December 3, 2025
On November 25, 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the Maximum Fair Prices (MFPs) for 15 drugs in the second negotiation cycle of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. In response to the announcement, the EACH/PIC Coalition issued the following statement:
“The EACH/PIC Coalition remains concerned that price-setting policies will not meaningfully lower patient out-of-pocket costs. Our patient-led research shows that affordability challenges are driven more by insurance design, access to assistance, and other life situations than by list price alone.
The establishment of MFPs will not meaningfully impact the lives of patients or resolve their obstacles to care. Furthermore, they are likely to exacerbate the patient-identified problems that limit their access to medications by increasing utilization management and creating a more complex healthcare system.
Additionally, we are also concerned that CMS did not describe how patient testimony, including from individuals who rely on these medicines, factored into its deliberations. Without transparency on how patient perspectives informed the process, it remains unclear whether the program is fully capturing or weighing the real-world implications for those who depend on these treatments.
We continue to urge CMS to proactively guard against increased utilization management or other restrictions that could result from implementation of the MFP, and we encourage Congress and the Trump Administration to avoid expanding the program until its true impact on patient access is better understood.
EACH/PIC remains committed to working with CMS and policymakers to ensure affordability efforts are effective, transparent, and centered on patient needs.”
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The Ensuring Access through Collaborative Health (EACH) and Patient Inclusion Council (PIC) is a two-part coalition that unites patient organizations and allied groups (EACH), as well as patients and caregivers (PIC), to advocate for drug affordability policies that benefit patients.