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BIO Submits Comments Re: Medicaid MCO Proposed Rule

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The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) is pleased to submit comments on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services&rsquo; (CMS&rsquo;s) proposed rule entitled <em>Medicaid Managed Care, CHIP Delivered in Managed Care, Medicaid and CHIP Comprehensive Quality Strategies, and Revisions Related to Third Party Liability; Proposed Rules</em> (the &quot;Proposed Rule&quot;).&nbsp;</p>
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The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) is pleased to submit comments on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) proposed rule entitled Medicaid Managed Care, CHIP Delivered in Managed Care, Medicaid and CHIP Comprehensive Quality Strategies, and Revisions Related to Third Party Liability; Proposed Rules(the “Proposed Rule”).

BIO is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO’s members develop medical products and technologies to treat patients afflicted with serious diseases, to delay the onset of these diseases, or to prevent them in the first place. In that way, our members’ novel therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics not only have improved health outcomes, but also have reduced healthcare expenditures due to fewer physician office visits, hospitalizations, and surgical interventions.

BIO represents an industry that is devoted to discovering new treatments and ensuring patient access to them.  We believe that the Medicaid program is a critical mechanism for ensuring access to care for some of our nation’s neediest patients.  Accordingly, we closely monitor Medicaid policies at both the state and federal levels for their potential impact on patient access to drugs and biologicals.  To these ends, BIO supports CMS’s efforts to strengthen patient protections available under the Medicaid managed care program, which has undergone a number of statutory changes, as well as a substantial growth in enrollment, since the Agency last comprehensively addressed the program in 2002.