Comment on CMS-2026-2080-0001

The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program is something I will advocate for because many patients in the United States continue to struggle with significant hurdles and barriers to affording high prescription drug costs. As a health care professional, it is very concerning and disheartening to see patients with chronic illnesses like heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, and other diseases are not receiving the essential, evidence-based practice, clinically proven drugs due to the high cost of drugs. Many patients in the United States rely on Medicare, and the Part D prescription drug benefit program needs to be updated to cover more drugs at reasonable prices and reduce out-of-pocket expenses, especially for those who are financially struggling or older adults. I implore the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to emphasize more on prioritizing affordability for these prescription drugs and update their policies as more research are proven a lot of the modern drugs are essential for chronic disease. For example, SGLT2i and ARNi are proven heart failure drugs that help prolong life and delay the risk of hospital readmissions. However, despite the fact that Medicare Part D does have coverage for them, there are patients in my clinical practice who require prior authorization for it to be approved for their illness. There needs to be more reevaluation to prevent such hurdles, because if the cost of prescription drugs is rising and inaccessible, patient will have a difficult time adhering to their medication regimen, and ultimately be readmitted to the hospital and drive up the cost of healthcare.