CMS will begin their Medicare drug price negotiations 2026 with 10 popular high cost prescription medications. CMS has announced the first 10 drugs that will be subject to price negotiations. The negotiations are part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Until recently, Medicare was able to negotiate prices for the medical care beneficiaries receive; this did not include the costs of medications. As of January 1, 2026, this will change and the negotiated drug prices begin to go into effect.
Watch a YouTube video on Medicare Part D changes
Medicare will negotiate the cost for some of the more expensive prescrption medications with drugmakers. Please note; the negotiations do no tapply to drugs that have a generic equivalent.
The first 10 medications CMS will negotiate are:
- Eliquis (a blood thinner)
- Enbrel (for rheumatoid arthritis)
- Entresto (for heart failure)
- Farxiga (for diabetes, heart failure & chronic kidney disease)
- Fiasp & Novalog (for diabetes)
- Imbruvica (for blood cancers)
- Januvia (for diabetes)
- Jardiance (for diabetes)
- Stelara (for psoriasis & Chron’s disease)
- Xarelto (a blood thinner)
As per CMS, the 10 drugs listed above make up about 20% of the Medicare Part D spending from June 2022 through the end of May 2023. Medicare Part D covers prescriptions beneficiaries take at home. Part D does not cover medications administered by medical providers in medical facilities. When this is the case, Medicare Part B covers the necesary drugs. This applies to treatment of cancer or other health conditions.
Take a look at the drug price negotiation fact sheet
Medicare beneficiaries spend billions on prescription drugs
Due to the incredibly high cost of some essential medications, some beneficiaries have to either forgo basic needs or the drugs that maintain their quality of life.
CMS has also put a prescrption payment program in pace to help spread out the cost of prescriptions for beneficiaries.
Learn about the Medicare prescription payment program.
The first 10 drugs are just the start
This list of 10 drugs is only the beginning of the price negotiations. In 2027, Medicare plans to add 15 more drugs and more in the following years. As long as the rug manufacturers continue to be unsuccessful in their attempts to stop price negtiations, the list will continue to expand each year.
Drug manufacturers
If the drug companies do not agree to the negotiations, they face possible tax penalties. Drug manufacturers can avoid the tax penalty if they remove their drug from the Medicare market. However, if they do that, they will take lifesaving drugs from Medicare beneficiaries as well as lose a large part of their market share.
Some large drug companies are seeking legal counsel to stop the drug price negotiations. They argue that the loss in income will affect their ability to fund necessary research and development and that in turn will reduce their ability to produce new medical treatments.