As cannabis industry stakeholders await action on a marijuana rescheduling proposal, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized a rule to provide federal health insurance coverage for CBD, according to an executive with a hemp company that’s been collaborating with the agency on the initiative.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in December that directed the attorney general to quickly complete the process of moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. While that component of the order made national headlines, another part of the administration’s cannabis plan announced on the same day concerned cannabidiol coverage through Medicare.
Mehmet Oz, administrator of CMS, spoke about the initiative at the signing ceremony for the order, crediting Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for “pushing for change” and “relentlessly” pursuing an agenda rooted in a “deep passion for research.”
The plan has been to create a pilot program enabling eligible patients to access hemp-derived cannabidiol that’d be covered under federal health insurance plans, projected to launch by April, according to Oz.
Jared Stanley, co-founder of the cannabis company Charlotte’s Web, said on a webinar with other
Read full article on Marijuana Moment
