The hemp-derived CBD products that President Donald Trump promised to seniors via a potentially transformative Medicaid pilot program will be allowed to contain more THC than previously thought, according to new reporting Thursday.
But while the new details reported by Cannabis Wire would allow more participation in a program offering federally subsidized CBD products, there’s still no official launch date.
The White House gave U.S. hemp companies a case of whiplash late last year with a pair of moves. One threatened the industry and the other dangled for the first time the promise of federal healthcare subsidies for cannabis products.
In November, Trump signed a new federal definition of hemp into law that advocates say criminalizes most of the $28 billion U.S. hemp industry’s existing products.
The next month, Trump and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz promised a massive new potential revenue source when they indicated that seniors on certain Medicaid plans could seek reimbursement for select CBD products by April.
An estimated 40 million Americans use CBD, according to a 2019 Gallup poll.
What CBD products will federal health insurance cover?
But with April weeks away, little detail has emerged since then, leaving both hemp operators and seniors seeking the $500 reimbursements promised by Trump and Oz in a state of flux.
However, according to Cannabis Wire, a CMMS spokesperson said that eligible products could contain up to 3 milligrams of THC per serving.
There are limits, the spokesperson said, according to Cannabis Wire.
Eligible products:
- Cannot be inhaled, ruling out flower, extracts and vaporizer oil
- Cannot include “cannabinoids not naturally produced or capable of being produced by or in the cannabis plant during its cultivation,” ruling out delta-8 THC derived from CBD isolate as well as other so-called “novel cannabinoids” like delta-10 THC.
CMMS told Cannabis Wire that more details, including doctors, pharmacies and other “accountable care organizations” that want to participate in the still mostly undefined program, will be released “in the coming weeks.”
About 75 ACOs serve roughly 1.7 million patients across the country, MJBizDaily has reported.
When does Medicare coverage for CBD products begin?
Trump tucked the CBD allowance into his executive order directing cannabis to be reclassified as a medicine under federal law after pressure from Mar-a-Lago Club member Howard Kessler, a CBD advocate.
But many unanswered questions remain for both operators and potential participants.
These include what CBD products may even exist by November, when total THC in individual containers of hemp-derived cannabinoid products must be limited to 0.4 milligrams.
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Trump’s marijuana rescheduling executive order calls on Congress to revise the looming hemp product ban “to allow Americans to benefit from access to appropriate full-spectrum CBD products.”
But so far, efforts in Washington “to update the statutory definition of final hemp-derived cannabinoid products” to allow CBD treatments “while preserving the Congress’s intent to restrict the sale of products that pose serious health risks” have gone nowhere.
