Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Sky-High Prices; Medicare; and More
Fox News: Sen. Tom Cotton: Prescription Drug Prices Are Sky High -- It's Time For A Tougher Approach To Lowering Prices
Americans are struggling to pay for their prescription drugs, which are getting more expensive every year. Since 2014, the cost of prescription drugs has risen 33 percent—faster than any other medical service. This means many Americans, especially seniors living on a fixed income, must spend a greater share of their income each year just to keep taking their medication. No wonder one-in-five seniors say they have a hard time paying for their prescription drugs. The coronavirus pandemic has only made matters worse. Millions of workers have lost their job or taken a pay cut due to the virus. And many people still aren’t able to set up appointments with their doctors, so they’re forced to navigate our confusing health care system on their own. (Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., 10/13)
The Hill: Trump's Claims On Lowering Prescription Drug Prices Are Only Campaign Rhetoric
As the Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, the president has made lowering prescription drug costs the core focus of his own plan to improve the American health care system. Responding to a question from moderator Chris Wallace during last week’s presidential debate about how the administration would replace ObamaCare, Trump shifted gears to repeat his claim that his administration’s policies will bring down drug prices 80 percent to 90 percent. (Varun Vaidya, 10/6)
Also —
Forbes: PBM Rebates Do Not Cause Higher Medicare Part D Drug Prices
The federal government spends a lot of money on prescription drugs. Medicare Part D, the program to help seniors pay for their prescription drugs, provides benefits to 45 million people and its budget for the upcoming fiscal year will exceed $90 billion. The program itself does not negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. Instead, the government partners with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to leverage its market power and reduce drug prices for seniors in Part D. Insurance companies, unions, large employers, and state governments also engage PBMs in similar arrangements. By representing such a wide swath of the purchasers of prescription drugs, PBMs can use their purchasing power to negotiate lower prices from pharmaceutical companies. (Ike Brannon, 10/7)
The Hill: Double-Dippers Drive Up Drug Costs
In searching for answers to why drug costs are high, we only need look at problems our own government has created. One of the biggest culprits distorting prices is the once obscure “340B Drug Pricing Program.” Created in 1992, it requires drugmakers to offer steep discounts to certain safety net clinics and hospitals to help them “stretch scarce federal resources.” The original intent was to reduce drug costs for uninsured and vulnerable patients by passing the discounts along to them. (Grace-Marie Turner, 10/7)
Becker's Hospital Review: IU Health CFO Jenni Alvey's Message To Healthcare CFOs: We Still Have Work To Do On Price Transparency
Finding an effective price transparency approach is one of the most difficult and expensive tasks in front of healthcare providers today. It seems we are all reacting to what the government, payers and employers want, instead of realizing these are our prices and messages to manage. As a 16-year-old cashier at Kmart, I saw the power of pricing firsthand with the retailer's pledge to match the lowest prices of its competitors. You can also see the absurdity of not being upfront about consumer pricing in the YouTube video "If Air Travel Worked Like Health Care." Shortly after becoming a vice president of revenue cycle almost a decade ago, I had a memorable conversation with our system CFO who asked my opinion of price transparency. I blurted out, "It would be too complicated for us to publish our prices." He looked at me and asked: "Then don't you think you should do something about that?" (Jenni Alvey, 10/13)
