The Rx Transparency Benchmark
What Medicare's negotiated drug prices mean for employer plans as Rx price transparency arrives.Across the 25 Part D drugs with completed negotiations, weighted by 2024 spending, Medicare’s negotiated prices are 63% below list price. They include semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy), Eliquis, and Jardiance, the same drugs that drive employer pharmacy spending.
In December 2027, health plans, including self-funded employer plans, are expected to begin publishing what they pay for prescription drugs under the updated Transparency in Coverage rules finalized October 5, 2026. Medicare’s negotiated prices are the first public benchmark plan sponsors can use to judge those numbers. Even so, 58% of Medicare Part D spending, about $166 billion, still has no public negotiated price.
This analysis uses public data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: the Negotiation Program’s Selected Drug List and Maximum Fair Price data file, CMS negotiated-price fact sheets for 2026 and 2027, and Medicare Part D Spending by Drug for 2020-2024. Prices for the 15 drugs in negotiation for 2028 will be added after CMS publishes them.
How to use the report: The report has three tabs: 1. List vs. Negotiated Price, 2. Spending vs. Negotiation, and 3. Methodology. Use the arrows at the bottom of the report to move between tabs and hover over any bar or row for detail.