As States Try To Rein In Drug Spending, Feds Slap Down One Bold Medicaid Move States serve as “laboratories of democracy,” as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said. And states are also labs for health policy, launching all kinds of experiments lately to temper spending on pharmaceuticals. No wonder. Drugs are among the fastest-rising health care costs for many consumers and are a key reason health care spending dominates many state budgets — crowding out roads, schools and other priorities. Consider Vermont, California and Oregon, states that are beginning to implement drug price transparency laws.
In Nevada, the push for transparency includes the markup charged by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). In May, Louisiana joined a growing list of states banning “gag rules” that prevent pharmacists from discussing drug prices with patients. State-based experiments may carry even greater weight for Medicaid, the federal-state partnership that covers roughly 75 million low-income or disabled Americans. Ohio is targeting the fees charged to its Medicaid program by PBMs. New York has
established a Medicaid spending drug cap. In late June, Oklahoma’s Medicaid program was approved by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to begin “value-based purchasing” for some newer, more expensive drugs: When drugs don’t work, the state would pay less for them. But around the same time, CMS denied a proposal from Massachusetts that was seen as the boldest attempt yet to control Medicaid drug spending.
Massachusetts planned to exclude expensive drugs that weren’t proven to work better than existing alternatives. The state said Medicaid drug spending had doubled in five years. Massachusetts wanted to negotiate prices for about 1 percent of the highest-priced drugs and stop covering some of them. CMS rejected the proposal without much explanation, beyond saying Massachusetts couldn’t do what it wanted and continue to receive the deep discounts drugmakers are required by law to give state Medicaid programs….Read More
Lawmakers consider easing costs on drug companies as part of opioids deal Lawmakers are considering adding a provision easing costs on drug companies to an opioid package currently being negotiated. The powerful pharmaceutical industry has been pushing for months to roll back a provision from February’s budget deal that shifted more costs onto drug companies, and they sense they have a chance to attach the change to the bipartisan opioid package currently moving through Congress. Democratic aides said Republicans are pushing to add
the change at the behest of drug companies. Senate Democrats have not taken a clear position. Henry Connelly, a spokesman for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Thursday evening, though, that Pelosi opposes the move. "The way Republicans are writing this, Big Pharma will get two or three times more money than the opioids crisis,” Connelly said. “Leader Pelosi opposes this Republican attempt to hijack a bipartisan effort on
opioids funding to ram through a multi-billion dollar handout to Big Pharma." One Democratic staffer involved in the negotiations, however, said members of the party have concerns. "The proposal is being pushed by Republicans. We have a lot of concerns about adding a PhRMA bailout that will force seniors to pay more for their health care onto a bill that’s intended to help people fight the opioid epidemic,” the staffer
said. Drug pricing advocates are up in arms at the possibility of a change favorable to pharmaceutical companies making it into a package aimed at fighting the opioid epidemic. “ALERT: Big Pharma trying to use the opioids bill as a vehicle to give themselves $4 billion windfall -- many of the same companies that contributed to the opioids crisis to begin with,” Ben Wakana, executive director of Patients for Affordable Drugs, tweeted on Thursday….Read More
The right way to cancel a credit card Decided that you need a divorce -- from one of your credit cards? Closing out a card is not something to be done r ashly or sloppily. The r ight way involves asking the r ight questions, getting pertinent answers, and making sure that you minimize any damage to your credit score. Take these steps to cancel a card cleanly, so you won't regret it. 1. Make sure you're canceling for a good reason 2. Don't let rewards die with the card 3. Pay off your balance 4. Turn off automatic payments 5. Make a goodbye phone call ……...Read More
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