InsideHealthPolicy.com's Daily Briefing - Powered by Dow Jones· US|April 27, 2023·09:45pm CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure told House lawmakers Wednesday (April 26) she’s committed to working with them on bipartisan legislation to increase transparency from pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), among other policy reforms to lower prescription drug costs for patients.
Brooks-LaSure testified before an Energy & Commerce health subcommittee hearing where members discussed 17 legislative proposals, including the Drug Price Transparency in Medicaid Act (H.R. 1613), which would prohibit the use of spread pricing and related PBM practices in the Medicaid program; the Medicaid VBPs for Patients (MVP) Act (H.R. 2666), which would codify value-based purchasing arrangements in Medicaid and require price reporting; and a bill that would require hospitals participating in the 340B drug discount program to report total 340B savings and other key metrics to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) annually.
“Patients deserve greater transparency in the prices they pay for health care. Today, consumers are not able to easily obtain price information on health care services. Sometimes, the price information that is provided is inaccurate and misleading, making it difficult to compare across providers or determine the true value of the care,” E&C ranking Democrat Frank Pallone (NJ) said during his opening statement.
Pallone said he looks forward to working in a bipartisan manner to address lacking transparency from stakeholders across the drug supply chain.
Lawmakers continue to press for more transparency on how PBMs operate, saying the opacity of common PBM practices makes it difficult to pinpoint how to prevent the drug supply middlemen from contributing to high drug prices.
Much of the hearing was spent on the issue of vertical integration among PBMs, hospitals and insurers, and the effect increased consolidation has on drug price competition.
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