What are your thoughts on recent news regarding rising drug prices? Is there a shared blame for the increasing costs in healthcare as PBMs and drugmakers continue to profit (see stock market) while end-users like patients and pharmacies seem to be shouldering the financial burden? The Ohio Dept of Medicaid has refused to work with PBMs who use "spread pricing" which may be costing taxpayers millions of dollars. What role should pharmacists play in this conversation? How can we better advocate for patients? What have others done to improve transparency?
Pharmacy Benefit Managers Say Drugmakers To Blame For High Drug Prices.
The Washington Examiner (8/15, King) says the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which represents pharmacy benefit managers, issued a report Wednesday that directs blame for high drug prices to drug makers. The report represents an effort to rebut arguments from the Trump Administration that PBMs are to blame for high costs because the rebate system "creates a perverse incentive for high list prices because the PBM gets a share of the rebate." The report counters that "list prices for drugs are rising even in cases in which drugmakers do not give a rebates to PBMs," according to the article.
Congressional Quarterly (8/15, Clason, Subscription Publication) reports that the rebate system "has been a flashpoint since Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, a former Eli Lilly executive, homed in on the practice as part of the administration's strategy to combat rising drug prices." Secretary Azar has called for "a system without rebates," and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma continue to "tweak drug policy in ways that could eventually add up to significant change."