President Donald Trump signed S. 2553and S. 2554 Wednesday, at a ceremony in the White House. (Photo:White House)
President Donald Trump has signed two bills that could helpincrease pharmacists' ability to help customers find the cheapest suitable drugs.
|The two bills are S. 2553 — the “Know the Lowest Price Act of2018″ bill — and S. 2554. S. 2554 is the “Patient Rightto Know Drug Prices Act” bill.
|Related: Senate unanimously approves ban on pharmacy gagrules
|Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., introduced S. 2553. Sen. SusanCollins, R-Maine, introduced S. 2554.
|What would S. 2553 and S. 2554 do?
Supporters of S. 2553 and S. 2554 say the bills would prohibithealth plan or drug plans from imposing drug cost communication“gag clauses” on pharmacists.
|S. 2553 prohibits a Medicare Advantage plan provider or aprovider of a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan fromrestricting the ability of a pharmacy to inform “an enrollee insuch plan of any differential between the negotiated priceof, or copayment or coinsurance for, the drug or biological to theenrollee under the plan and a lower price the individual would payfor the drug or biological if the enrollee obtained the drugwithout using any health insurance coverage.”.
|The effective date for the Know the Lowest Price Act is for planyears beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2020.
|S. 2554 prohibits a “group health plan or health insuranceissuer” from restricting, directly or indirectly, “any pharmacythat dispenses a prescription drug to an enrollee in the plan orcoverage from informing ,,,an enrollee of any differentialbetween the enrollee's out-of-pocket cost under the plan orcoverage with respect to acquisition of the drug and the amount anindividual would pay for acquisition of the drug without using anyhealth plan or health insurance coverage.”
|S. 2554 also seeks to “ensure that any entity that providespharmacy benefits management services under a contract with anysuch health plan or health insurance coverage does not, withrespect to such plan or coverage, restrict, directly or indirectly,a pharmacy that dispenses a prescription drug from informing (orpenalize such pharmacy for informing) an enrollee of anydifferential between the enrollee's out-of-pocket cost under theplan or coverage with respect to acquisition of the drug and theamount an individual would pay for acquisition of the drug withoutusing any health plan or health insurance coverage.”
|S. 2554 does not include an effective date.
|What do insurance groups say about pharmacy gag clauses?
Some in the insurance industry have said they believe use ofdrug plan gag clauses is rare. In September, for example, DavidYoder, an executive at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association,testified at a House hearing that he had notheard of any of the Blues, or the Blues' outside pharmacy benefitsmanagers, imposing gag clauses on pharmacists.
|In March, America's Health Insurance Plans said, in a statement,that it supports efforts to ban pharmacy benefits gag clauses butbelieves those gag clauses are rare.
|“This doesn't solve the problem of patients being unable toafford their medications because drug prices are simply too high,”AHIP said.
|What is the president saying about drug prices?
Trump said Wednesday, at a signing ceremony, that he sees thetwo new drug benefits information laws as the result of hisadministration's drug pricing blueprint initiative.
|“Within a week of announcing the blueprint, my administrationbegan to crack down on so-called 'gag clauses' in Medicare Part Dplans,” Trump said, according to a copy of his remarks provided by the WhiteHouse. “You all know what that is. These clauses preventpharmacists from telling patients about more affordable options forprescription drugs.”
|The new laws build on that effort, Trump said.
|“Our great citizens deserve to know the lowest price availableat our pharmacies, and now that is what they will be getting,”Trump said. “They'll be able to see pricing. They'll be able to seewhere they should go. And as they start leaving certain pharmacies,those pharmacies will be dropping their prices.”
|Trump thanked Collins and Stabenow for their efforts. Healso praised Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Bill Cassidy,R-La., and Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga.
|Resources
A video of the signing ceremony is available here.
|Read up on the latest developments in the pharmaindustry:
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, ThinkAdvisor's insurance editor, previously was LifeHealthPro's health insurance editor. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @Think_Allison.
