Credit : The White House's X
WASHINGTON, November 5, 2026 — The White House said on Wednesday that newly finalised Medicare policies will lower costs by more than $1 billion for seniors next year, highlighting changes to outpatient drug payments and routine imaging services.
In a post on X, the White House wrote that the measures would deliver “effective policy to help the American people where they need it most.” The claim tracks with a final rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for the 2027 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System, released on November 4, 2026 and due to take effect on January 1, 2027.
CMS estimates that revising payments for drugs bought through the federal 340B discount programme will cut beneficiary cost-sharing by about $1.1 billion in the first year, or roughly $900 on average for affected Original Medicare patients who receive qualifying outpatient drugs in hospital departments. The agency said Medicare would pay for those 340B-acquired drugs at average sales price minus 28%, closer to surveyed hospital acquisition costs.
White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster told the Daily Signal that seniors would also save more than $2 billion over the next decade on common imaging services such as heart ultrasounds, bone-density scans and chest X-rays, because Medicare will no longer pay the higher hospital rate for certain services performed in off-campus hospital clinics. CMS separately projected about $70 million in lower beneficiary imaging cost-sharing in 2027.
Hospital groups have long defended the previous 340B reimbursement formula, arguing that discounted drug purchases help safety-net providers care for low-income patients. CMS said a 2026 acquisition-cost survey found some patient co-pays exceeded what hospitals paid for the drugs, and that the new formula is required to stay budget-neutral inside the outpatient payment system by raising payments for non-drug services.
The rule also updates 2027 payment rates for hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgical centres and expands some outpatient surgery options. Rural sole community hospitals are exempted from the imaging-site change, according to industry summaries of the final rule.
The White House linked the package to earlier drug-cost initiatives, including TrumpRx.gov. Independent coverage by Newsweek and specialty medical groups confirmed the CMS savings estimates while noting that the changes redistribute money inside Medicare rather than cutting the overall outpatient budget.
Source: The White House on X, with background from CMS rule summaries, the Daily Signal and Newsweek.
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