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Brand manufacturers that are the sole provider of a drug sold to hospitals may see increased sales under new federal reimbursement rates established in the Medicare prescription drug law.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee wants to know more about the relationship between drugmakers’ pricing practices and Medicaid drug reimbursement rates and asked five major retail pharmacy chains to turn over their Medicaid pricing and rebate records.
Having avoided the bullet of price controls in the new Medicare Rx drug law, pressure on drugmakers to lower the cost of their products may come from this year’s presidential election, with lower drug costs being second only to national security as a top concern among voters, experts say.
Over the next two years, drugmakers will have to finesse the way they handle price breaks for large-volume purchasers in order to have those prices excluded from future reimbursement averages determined by legislators under the new Medicare Rx drug law.
Although the newly enacted Medicare drug benefit contains no price control mechanism, the pharmaceutical industry will likely come under new political pressure to lower drug costs — an issue that is second only to national security as a top concern among voters, experts say.
Maine health officials have delayed implementing the state’s groundbreaking prescription drug discount program — which also faces ongoing legal challenges from PhRMA — as they consider how the state drug plan jibes with the new federal drug benefit.