A limited federal hemp CBD and THC reimbursement program just launched, and anti-marijuana groups are already in court trying to block it. The fight is about access, federal authority and who gets to decide whether cannabinoids belong in patient care.
For all the noise around cannabis in Washington, this is one of the more interesting things the federal government has done in a while, and it happened with surprisingly little fanfare.
On April 1, a new federal program quietly began allowing certain participating care models to furnish up to $500 a year in eligible hemp-derived products for approved patients. The products can include CBD and a limited amount of THC, as long as they stay within the rules CMS laid out: non-inhalable, hemp-derived, no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC, no more than 3 milligrams per serving of tetrahydrocannabinols in orally administered form, no synthetic cannabinoids, and full compliance with state and local law.
And almost immediately, the backlash showed up.
On March 31, just before launch, Smart Approaches to Marijuana and nine other anti-marijuana organizations filed a lawsuit trying to stop the program before it got off the ground. Their complaint argues that CMS acted unlawfully, skipped required administrative steps and is venturing into dangerous territory by allowing access to non-FDA-approved cannabinoid products through a federal health program.
That clash is the real story here. Not just that the federal government opened a new hemp reimbursement pathway, but that the minute it did, prohibitionist groups went to court to shut it down.
To be clear, this is not broad Medicare coverage for everybody’s favorite gummies. It is narrower than that. The new Substance Access Beneficiary Engagement Incentive, or BEI, applies only inside certain CMS Innovation Center models: ACO REACH, the Enhancing Oncology Model, and the Long-term Enhance ACO Design Model, with the first two …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
