Medicare Drug Price Negotiations Imperiled by Shutdown, HHS Says (1)

Medicare’s first-ever drug pricing negotiation process could be shaken by a looming government shutdown, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Friday.

“There are some people who will continue to be at HHS, at CMS, even if the government shuts down, because of the exemptions in the law, but the vast majority of the workforce will not,” Becerra said in a conversation with reporters at the White House.

“To the degree that we are needing to use a lot of those deployable people to be ready to engage in the negotiation,” it’s inevitable that a shutdown would throw off ...