Sen. Finance says no to public option–twice.

Key members of the Senate Finance Committee defeated two amendments yesterday that would have established a government-run public option in their health care legislation, America’s Healthy Future Act.  Senator Chuck Grassley, an strong opponent to a public option, voted no to both amendments.

Check out the story from the Washington Post.

Read Full Post »

PBM transparency amendment passes unanimously

An amendment offered by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) during the Senate Finance Committee’s markup of its health care legislation–America’s Healthy Future Act–passed unanimously today.

The amendment would require three major disclosures by PBMs operating within a newly established health insurance exchange:

• Prescription drugs dispensed through retail pharmacies and mail-order pharmacies with generic dispensing and substitution rates of each.
• The types and average amounts of rebates and discounts paid by drug manufacturers, along with the cut taken by PBMs.
• The average amounts paid to plan sponsors and pharmacies by PBMs for dispensing prescriptions.

The National Community Pharmacists Association along with many other consumer groups have been lobbying hard for these provisions, and it appears to have gained quite a bit of momentum.  This is great news for pharmacy!

Check out the NCPA press release here.

Read Full Post »

Last minute DME accreditation extension possible

Both the US House and Senate are expected to bring forth and vote on a proposed 90-day extension for DME accreditation before the deadline this Thursday.  If approved, this extension would buy pharmacies more time until the accreditation issue can be formally addressed in health care reform legislation.

Current drafts of health care reform legislation include varying proposals that would grant pharmacies a limited exemption based on either specific DME products or a max percentage of total sales accounted for by DME sales.

Read Full Post »

Senate Finance amendment extravaganza; PhRMA deal survives

AP photo

This past Tuesday was a busy day for the Senate Finance Committee.  Mark-ups began on their health care reform legislation, which involved consideration of hundreds of amendments.  Many of these deal with pharmacy issues–particularly the $80 billion deal struck between President Obama and PhRMA.

Check out a summary of the proposed amendments here.

One notable amendment that drew a lot of attention would have negated the arrangement made between PhRMA and the Obama administration.  It would have resulted in $100 billion in rebates from drug companies over ten years, as opposed to the $80 “stake” PhRMA offered to place in health care reform.  This amendment was defeated, meaning the Senate Finance legislation cannot seek more of a monetary input from the drug companies.

Read about the vote here.

Listen to the NPR story here.

Read Full Post »

The Long-Awaited Senate Finance Bill

The Senate Finance Committee released their draft of health care reform legislation months after months of anticipation.  Some of the pharmacy highlights include:

-Medicare Advantage payment of MTM services
-DME accreditation exemption if less than 5% of total sales are from DME supplies and there are no delinquencies in the last 5 years.
-Medicaid prescription reimbursement set at 175% weighted average AMP
-Exploration of MTM services in new “Innovations Center.”
-Establishes Accountable Care Organizations and health co-ops.
-Require prescription drug coverage for categorically and medically needy Medicaid patients, and remove smoking cessation drugs, barbiturates and benzodiazepines from the Medicaid excluded drug list.  Both of these will be in effect January 1, 2014.

Check out this summary of the Senate Finance bill prepared by APhA. Pharmacy-specific issues are hi-lighted in yellow.

Read Full Post »

Recess is over.

Taken from: blog.prospect.org

The August recess is over and US Representatives and Senators are back on the Hill tackling health care reform.  It was a lively August full of townhall meetings across the state, Presidential addresses, and closed-door meetings in the Senate Finance Committee–the one committee that was yet to produce their version of health care legislation.

This is no longer the case now that Senator Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has announced a draft of their bill–America’s Health Future Act–will begin to be marked up next week.  We have yet to see specific language in the bill, but once we do we will scour it for provisions that impact the profession of pharmacy.

In the meantime, check out this story from the Washington Post talking about the Senate Finance bill.

Read Full Post »