Medicare’s pilot program covering hemp-derived products has officially launched. Under the plan, Medicare providers can be reimbursed up to $500 per patient each year for discussing and offering certain CBD products.
CBD products covered under the plan cannot exceed concentrations of 0.3% delta-9 THC, or more than 3 milligrams of THC per serving. Products must also be third-party tested and meet state and local standards. It excludes patients who have certain medical conditions, including substance use disorder and COPD.
In an April 1 statement, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz said the agency “is committed to innovation that meets patients’ needs while maintaining strong safeguards and clinical oversight.”
“Under (President Donald Trump’s) leadership, we are expanding the tools available to improve patient health while generating important insights into how providers can use these tools safely and effectively in real-world care settings.” – Oz in one press release
CMS Innovation Center Director Abe Sutton added that “the initiative gives providers in certain models another tool — with necessary safeguards — to support their patients’ needs by consulting on whether the potential use of hemp products could help improve symptoms.”
The program is subject to ia suit brought by a coalition of health advocacy organizations and anti-cannabis groups that argues it violates the Social Security Act, which “does not permit CMS to sanction the possession and use of illegal and dangerous Schedule I substances by Medicare patients without express authorization from Congress.”
