CMS Recommends Beneficiaries with Sickle Cell Disease to be Excluded from Opioid Safety Edits in Medicare Advantage and Part D Plans

On April 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released updates to the Medicare Advantage and Part D programs for 2020.

The agency recommended that beneficiaries with SCD be excluded from the opioid safety edits.

The agency references the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, which states that “given the challenges of managing the painful complications of sickle cell disease, readers are referred to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Evidence Based Management of Sickle Cell Disease Expert Panel Report for management of sickle cell disease.”

Read more, here.