On Monday, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it would not pursue a controversial proposal to remove antidepressants as a “protected class” under Medicare Part D at this time. Following the original announcement of the policy in January, The Parkinson’s Action Network (PAN) and other disease groups worked with Congress and CMS to raise awareness of the negative impacts this policy would have on patients.

According to PAN:

“As a significant amount of people with Parkinson's rely on antidepressants, removing these drugs from the protected classes would have limited access to the medications needed to treat a common co-morbidity of Parkinson's disease.”

Read more about the issue background and implications for PD patients on the PAN website.