Trenton, July 14, 2022 ― Dean J. Paranicas, President and Chief Executive Officer of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, released the following statement concerning recent discussions in Washington on potential drug pricing legislation in a reconciliation package:
“The prescription drug bill recently introduced by Congress in its reconciliation package does not meet our shared goal of lowering costs for patients while also sustaining medical innovation. We have previously offered numerous approaches to accomplish this, but like previous versions of the bill, the latest proposal would adversely impact patient access and the pricing provisions would stifle the innovation necessary to finding new treatments, cures and vaccines upon which patients have come to rely and expect from America’s life sciences community.
The bill would actually increase cost-sharing for seniors in the Medicare Part D program by raising premiums and removing caps on co-pays as well as delaying the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap for patients, and by repealing rebate rules that would have collectively saved seniors millions of dollars at the pharmacy counter.
This legislation also ignores the role that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) increasingly play in determining a patient’s out-of-pocket costs and does nothing to ensure that rebates intended for patients in fact benefit them.
We reaffirm our commitment to work with our policymakers to continue finding ways to lower patient costs without jeopardizing the promise of future treatments and cures. Unfortunately, this proposed legislation falls short on both.”