{"id":1938030,"date":"2023-05-25T14:56:03","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T18:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-committee-demands-transparency-on-how-consumer-drug-prices-are-set\/"},"modified":"2023-05-25T15:00:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T19:00:04","slug":"house-committee-demands-transparency-on-how-consumer-drug-prices-are-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-committee-demands-transparency-on-how-consumer-drug-prices-are-set\/","title":{"rendered":"House panel wants to know how drug prices are set."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-committee-demands-transparency-on-how-consumer-drug-prices-are-set%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1938030&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Democrats and Republicans Unite to Address Unfair Drug Pricing<\/h2>\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0524\/6e57f7a1-d424-47b2-84d9-7f0dfcc6a5d2\/audio.mp3?length=4530573&#038;duration=378\"><\/div>\n<p>In a rare demonstration of bipartisanship during a House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing on May 23, Democrats and Republicans jointly voiced concern and disapproval\u2014and sought answers\u2014about the behind-the-scenes deal-making that results in consumer drug pricing the legislators say is unfair and unreasonably high.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, almost two-and-half hours into the hearing, first-term Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said: \u201cI applaud all my colleagues, which, you know, tend to be a little partisan. And so I didn\u2019t know that we could actually agree on much of anything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd so, you know, today has revealed that miracles are still happening in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The hearing was the first that Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and the committee held on the practices of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/thanksgiving-table-setter-a-guide-to-the-behemoth-build-back-better-act\/\" title=\"Thanksgiving Table Setter: A Guide to the Behemoth Build Back Better Act\">pharmacy benefit managers<\/a> (PBMs), which manage prescription benefits and prices on behalf of insurers, the government, and other large payers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5280772\" style=\"width: 525px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/21\/id5280772-GettyImages-1460829313-1200x800.jpg\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/05\/21\/id5280772-GettyImages-1460829313-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, speaks at a media event at the National Press Club on Jan. 30, 2023, in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images)\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<h3>Pharmacy Benefit Managers Need to Be Held Accountable<\/h3>\n<p>Comer and his colleagues contend that PBMs need to be held more accountable and operate with more transparency in their role as a middleman between drug manufacturers and pharmacies\u2014and the public must be allowed better insight into the business and pricing arrangements, as well as contracts and payments among these groups.<\/p>\n<p>An example of specific business agreements the committee is looking into is what big pharma pays in\u00a0rebates to PBMs to sell and distribute their pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n<p>Although there are about 30 PBMs, three\u2014CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx\u2014together control approximately 80 percent of the market. These three PBMs are part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-committee-demands-transparency-on-how-consumer-drug-prices-are-set\/\" title=\"House panel wants to know how drug prices are set.\">dominant supply chain network<\/a> of corporations,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>CVS Health owns CVS Caremark, CVS Pharmacy, and the health insurer Aetna.<\/li>\n<li>UnitedHealth Group owns OptumRx and UnitedHealthcare, a health insurer.<\/li>\n<li>The health insurance company Cigna owns Express Scripts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Prices \u2018Through the Roof\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cToday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/joe-bidens-21-false-or-misleading-statements-from-his-joint-address-to-congress\/\" title=\"Joe Biden\u2019s 21 False Or Misleading Statements From His Joint Address To Congress\">health care premiums<\/a> have increased faster than inflation,\u201d said Comer in his opening statement. \u201cList prices for prescription drugs have gone through the roof, even though net prices have declined.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd despite this increase in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-calls-travel-lid-for-wednesday-an-hour-after-bobulinski-interview-airs\/\" title=\"Biden Calls Travel Lid for Wednesday an Hour After Bobulinski Interview Airs\">health care costs<\/a>, life expectancy has remained stagnant. That means someone is benefiting, and it isn\u2019t patients. Look no further than PBMs or pharmacy benefit managers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The first PBM was Diversified Prescription Delivery, founded in 1988 by UnitedHealthcare.<\/p>\n<p>Comer said there was a time when prescription benefit managers served a valuable purpose for consumers and across the supply chain.<\/p>\n<p>The chairman noted that when there were \u201cmore than a dozen large PBMs\u201d it fostered a competitive environment that encouraged the organizations to perform far more openly than nowadays and promoted PBMs striving to outdo their market opponents in delivering helpful and clear information for consumers, pharmacies, and drug makers.<\/p>\n<p>Comer noted that in years past, PBMs would \u201cquickly tell pharmacists across the country whether insurance would cover a patient\u2019s medication and what the patient\u2019s copay would be. They were able to negotiate reduced cost of prescription drugs, pitting competing manufacturers against one another.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were able to drive down premiums for patients by encouraging greater adoption of lower cost medication.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>All About Profits<\/h2>\n<p>Witnesses who appeared at the hearing were Miriam Atkins, a physician who is president of the Community Oncology Alliance (Augusta, Ga.); Kevin Duane, a pharmacist and owner of Panama Pharmacy in Jack<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats and Republicans showed rare bipartisanship during a House Committee hearing on May 23. They expressed concern about unfair and high consumer drug pricing due to behind-the-scenes deal-making. Rep. Krishnamoorthi questioned the CEO of AbbVie about the company&#8217;s pricing practices, which he believes are anti-competitive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1640,"featured_media":1938031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[5642,3653,8636,4590,8273],"class_list":["post-1938030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-drug","tag-house","tag-panel","tag-prices","tag-set"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1640"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1938030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1938031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1938030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1938030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1938030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}