Archives For medicare

A Windfall for Insurers in the Medicare Part D Coverage Gap

Joanna Shepherd —  13 February 2018

The two-year budget plan passed last week makes important changes to payment obligations in the Medicare Part D coverage gap, also known as the donut hole.  While the new plan produces a one-year benefit for seniors by reducing what they pay a year earlier than was already mandated, it permanently shifts much of the drug costs insurance companies were paying to drug makers.  It’s far from clear whether this windfall for insurers will result in lower drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries.

Medicare Part D is voluntary prescription drug insurance for seniors and the permanently disabled provided by private insurance plans that are approved by the Medicare program.  Last year, more than 42 million people enrolled in Medicare Part D plans. Payment for prescription drugs under Medicare Part D depends on how much enrollees spend on drugs.  In 2018, after hitting a deductible that varies by plan, enrollees pay 25% of their drug costs while the Part D plans pay 75%.  However, once the individual and the plan have spent a total of $3,750, enrollees hit the coverage gap that lasts until $8,418 has been spent.  In the coverage gap, enrollees pay 35% of brand drug costs, the Part D plans pay 15%, and drug makers are required to offer 50% discounts on brand drugs to cover the rest.  Once total spending reaches $8,418, enrollees enter catastrophic coverage in which they pay only 5% of drug costs, the Part D plans pay 15%, and the Medicare program pays the other 80%.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) included provisions to phase out the coverage gap by 2020, so that enrollees will pay only 25% of drug costs from the time they meet the deductible until they hit the catastrophic coverage level.  The budget plan passed last week speeds up this phase out by one year, so enrollees will start paying only 25% in 2019 instead of 2020.  The ACA anticipated that with enrollees paying 25% of drug costs and drug maker discounts of 50%, the Part D plans would pay the other 25%.  However, last week’s budget plan drastically redistributed the payment responsibilities from the Part D insurance plans to drug makers. Under the new plan drug makers are required to offer 70% discounts so that the plans only have to pay 5% of the total drug costs.  That is, the new plan shifts 20% of total drug costs in the coverage gap from insurers to drug makers.

Although the drug spending in each individual’s coverage gap is less than $5,000, with over 42 million people covered, the total spending, and the 20% of spending shifted from insurers to drug makers, is significant.  CMS has estimated that when drug makers’ discounts were only covering 50% of drug spending in the gap, the annual total discounts amounted to over $5.6 billion.  Requiring drug makers to cover another 20% of drug spending will add several billion dollars more to this total.

A government intervention that forces suppliers to cover 70% of the spending in a market is a surprising move for Republicans—supposed advocates of free markets.  Moreover, although reducing prescription drug costs has become a national priority, it’s unclear whether shifting costs from insurers to drug makers will benefit individuals at all.  Theoretically, as the individual Part D plans pay less of their enrollees’ drug costs, they should pass on the savings to enrollees in the form of lower premiums.  However, several studies suggest that enrollees may not experience a net decrease in drug spending.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has determined that under Medicare Part D, drug makers increase list prices to offset other concessions and to more quickly move enrollees out of the coverage gap where drug makers are required to offer price discounts.  Higher list prices mean that enrollees’ total out-of-pocket drug spending increases; even a 5% cost-sharing obligation in the catastrophic coverage for a high-priced drug can be a significant expense. Higher list prices that push enrollees out of the coverage gap also shift more costs onto the Medicare program that pays 80% of drug costs in the catastrophic coverage phase.

A better, more direct way to reduce Medicare Part D enrollees’ out-of-pocket drug spending is to require point-of-sale rebates.  Currently, drug makers offer rebates to Part D plans in order to improve their access to the millions of individuals covered by the plans.  However, the rebates, which total over $16 billion annually, are paid after the point-of-sale, and evidence shows that only a portion of these rebates get passed through to beneficiaries in the form of reduced insurance premiums.  Moreover, a reduction in premiums does little to benefit those enrolled individuals who have the highest aggregate out-of-pocket spending on drugs. (As an aside, in contrast to the typical insurance subsidization of high-cost enrollees by low-cost enrollees, high-spending enrollees under Medicare Part D generate greater rebates for their plans, but then the rebates are spread across all enrollees in the form of lower premiums).

Drug maker rebates will more directly benefit Medicare Part D enrollees if rebates are passed through at the point-of-sale to reduce drug copays.  Point-of-sale rebates would ensure that enrollees see immediate savings as they meet their cost-sharing obligations.  Moreover, the enrollees with the highest aggregate out-of-pocket spending would be the ones to realize the greatest savings.  CMS has recently solicited comments on a plan to require some portion of drug makers’ rebates to be applied at the point of sale, and the President’s budget plan released yesterday proposes point-of-sale rebates to lower Medicare Part D enrollees’ out-of-pocket spending.  Ultimately, targeting rebates to consumers at the point-of-sale will more effectively lower drug spending than reducing insurance plans’ payment obligations in hopes that they pass on the savings to enrollees.

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Understanding government negotiation of Medicare drug prices

Joanna Shepherd —  16 January 2017

In a weekend interview with the Washington Post, Donald Trump vowed to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid.  It’s unclear what, if anything, Trump intends for Medicaid; drug makers are already required to sell drugs to Medicaid at the lowest price they negotiate with any other buyer.  For Medicare, Trump didn’t offer any more details about the intended negotiations, but he’s referring to his campaign proposals to allow the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate directly with manufacturers the prices of drugs covered under Medicare Part D.

Such proposals have been around for quite a while.  As soon as the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 was enacted, creating the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, many lawmakers began advocating for government negotiation of drug prices. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders favored this approach during their campaigns, and the Obama Administration’s proposed budget for fiscal years 2016 and 2017 included a provision that would have allowed the HHS to negotiate prices for a subset of drugs: biologics and certain high-cost prescription drugs.

However, federal law would have to change if there is to be any government negotiation of drug prices under Medicare Part D. Congress explicitly included a “noninterference” clause in the MMA that stipulates that HHS “may not interfere with the negotiations between drug manufacturers and pharmacies and PDP sponsors, and may not require a particular formulary or institute a price structure for the reimbursement of covered part D drugs.”

Most people don’t understand what it means for the government to “negotiate” drug prices and the implications of the various options.  Some proposals would simply eliminate the MMA’s noninterference clause and allow HHS to negotiate prices for a broad set of drugs on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.  However, the Congressional Budget Office has already concluded that such a plan would have “a negligible effect on federal spending” because it is unlikely that HHS could achieve deeper discounts than the current private Part D plans (there are 746 such plans in 2017).  The private plans are currently able to negotiate significant discounts from drug manufacturers by offering preferred formulary status for their drugs and channeling enrollees to the formulary drugs with lower cost-sharing incentives. In most drug classes, manufacturers compete intensely for formulary status and offer considerable discounts to be included.

The private Part D plans are required to provide only two drugs in each of several drug classes, giving the plans significant bargaining power over manufacturers by threatening to exclude their drugs.  However, in six protected classes (immunosuppressant, anti-cancer, anti-retroviral, antidepressant, antipsychotic and anticonvulsant drugs), private Part D plans must include “all or substantially all” drugs, thereby eliminating their bargaining power and ability to achieve significant discounts.  Although the purpose of the limitation is to prevent plans from cherry-picking customers by denying coverage of certain high cost drugs, giving the private Part D plans more ability to exclude drugs in the protected classes should increase competition among manufacturers for formulary status and, in turn, lower prices.  And it’s important to note that these price reductions would not involve any government negotiation or intervention in Medicare Part D.  However, as discussed below, excluding more drugs in the protected classes would reduce the value of the Part D plans to many patients by limiting access to preferred drugs.

For government negotiation to make any real difference on Medicare drug prices, HHS must have the ability to not only negotiate prices, but also to put some pressure on drug makers to secure price concessions.  This could be achieved by allowing HHS to also establish a formulary, set prices administratively, or take other regulatory actions against manufacturers that don’t offer price reductions.  Setting prices administratively or penalizing manufacturers that don’t offer satisfactory reductions would be tantamount to a price control.  I’ve previously explained that price controls—whether direct or indirect—are a bad idea for prescription drugs for several reasons. Evidence shows that price controls lead to higher initial launch prices for drugs, increased drug prices for consumers with private insurance coverage,  drug shortages in certain markets, and reduced incentives for innovation.

Giving HHS the authority to establish a formulary for Medicare Part D coverage would provide leverage to obtain discounts from manufacturers, but it would produce other negative consequences.  Currently, private Medicare Part D plans cover an average of 85% of the 200 most popular drugs, with some plans covering as much as 93%.  In contrast, the drug benefit offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), one government program that is able to set its own formulary to achieve leverage over drug companies, covers only 59% of the 200 most popular drugs.  The VA’s ability to exclude drugs from the formulary has generated significant price reductions. Indeed, estimates suggest that if the Medicare Part D formulary was restricted to the VA offerings and obtained similar price reductions, it would save Medicare Part D $510 per beneficiary.  However, the loss of access to so many popular drugs would reduce the value of the Part D plans by $405 per enrollee, greatly narrowing the net gains.

History has shown that consumers don’t like their access to drugs reduced.  In 2014, Medicare proposed to take antidepressants, antipsychotic and immunosuppressant drugs off the protected list, thereby allowing the private Part D plans to reduce offerings of these drugs on the formulary and, in turn, reduce prices.  However, patients and their advocates were outraged at the possibility of losing access to their preferred drugs, and the proposal was quickly withdrawn.

Thus, allowing the government to negotiate prices under Medicare Part D could carry important negative consequences.  Policy-makers must fully understand what it means for government to negotiate directly with drug makers, and what the potential consequences are for price reductions, access to popular drugs, drug innovation, and drug prices for other consumers.

In Antitrust & Competition, Health Care, Truth on the Market , , , , , , ,
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Critics of health insurance mergers misapply the evidence and misinterpret the market

Geoffrey Manne —  30 June 2016

As regulatory review of the merger between Aetna and Humana hits the homestretch, merger critics have become increasingly vocal in their opposition to the deal. This is particularly true of a subset of healthcare providers concerned about losing bargaining power over insurers.

Fortunately for consumers, the merger appears to be well on its way to approval. California recently became the 16th of 20 state insurance commissions that will eventually review the merger to approve it. The U.S. Department of Justice is currently reviewing the merger and may issue its determination as early as July.

Only Missouri has issued a preliminary opinion that the merger might lead to competitive harm. But Missouri is almost certain to remain an outlier, and its analysis simply doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

The Missouri opinion echoed the Missouri Hospital Association’s (MHA) concerns about the effect of the merger on Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. It’s important to remember, however, that hospital associations like the MHA are not consumer advocacy groups. They are trade organizations whose primary function is to protect the interests of their member hospitals.

In fact, the American Hospital Association (AHA) has mounted continuous opposition to the deal. This is itself a good indication that the merger will benefit consumers, in part by reducing hospital reimbursement costs under MA plans.

More generally, critics have argued that history proves that health insurance mergers lead to higher premiums, without any countervailing benefits. Merger opponents place great stock in a study by economist Leemore Dafny and co-authors that purports to show that insurance mergers have historically led to seven percent higher premiums.

But that study, which looked at a pre-Affordable Care Act (ACA) deal and assessed its effects only on premiums for traditional employer-provided plans, has little relevance today.

The Dafny study first performed a straightforward statistical analysis of overall changes in concentration (that is, the number of insurers in a given market) and price, and concluded that “there is no significant association between concentration levels and premium growth.” Critics never mention this finding.

The study’s secondary, more speculative, analysis took the observed effects of a single merger — the 1999 merger between Prudential and Aetna — and extrapolated for all changes in concentration (i.e., the number of insurers in a given market) and price over an eight-year period. It concluded that, on average, seven percent of the cumulative increase in premium prices between 1998 and 2006 was the result of a reduction in the number of insurers.

But what critics fail to mention is that when the authors looked at the actual consequences of the 1999 Prudential/Aetna merger, they found effects lasting only two years — and an average price increase of only one half of one percent. And these negligible effects were restricted to premiums paid under plans purchased by large employers, a critical limitation of the studies’ relevance to today’s proposed mergers.

Moreover, as the study notes in passing, over the same eight-year period, average premium prices increased in total by 54 percent. Yet the study offers no insights into what was driving the vast bulk of premium price increases — or whether those factors are still present today.  

Few sectors of the economy have changed more radically in the past few decades than healthcare has. While extrapolated effects drawn from 17-year-old data may grab headlines, they really don’t tell us much of anything about the likely effects of a particular merger today.

Indeed, the ACA and current trends in healthcare policy have dramatically altered the way health insurance markets work. Among other things, the advent of new technologies and the move to “value-based” care are redefining the relationship between insurers and healthcare providers. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Medicare and Medicare Advantage market at the heart of the Aetna/Humana merger.

In an effort to stop the merger on antitrust grounds, critics claim that Medicare and MA are distinct products, in distinct markets. But it is simply incorrect to claim that Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare aren’t “genuine alternatives.”

In fact, as the Office of Insurance Regulation in Florida — a bellwether state for healthcare policy — concluded in approving the merger: “Medicare Advantage, the private market product, competes directly with Traditional Medicare.”

Consumers who search for plans at Medicare.gov are presented with a direct comparison between traditional Medicare and available MA plans. And the evidence suggests that they regularly switch between the two. Today, almost a third of eligible Medicare recipients choose MA plans, and the majority of current MA enrollees switched to MA from traditional Medicare.

True, Medicare and MA plans are not identical. But for antitrust purposes, substitutes need not be perfect to exert pricing discipline on each other. Take HMOs and PPOs, for example. No one disputes that they are substitutes, and that prices for one constrain prices for the other. But as anyone who has considered switching between an HMO and a PPO knows, price is not the only variable that influences consumers’ decisions.

The same is true for MA and traditional Medicare. For many consumers, Medicare’s standard benefits, more-expensive supplemental benefits, plus a wider range of provider options present a viable alternative to MA’s lower-cost expanded benefits and narrower, managed provider network.

The move away from a traditional fee-for-service model changes how insurers do business. It requires larger investments in technology, better tracking of preventive care and health outcomes, and more-holistic supervision of patient care by insurers. Arguably, all of this may be accomplished most efficiently by larger insurers with more resources and a greater ability to work with larger, more integrated providers.

This is exactly why many hospitals, which continue to profit from traditional, fee-for-service systems, are opposed to a merger that promises to expand these value-based plans. Significantly, healthcare providers like Encompass Medical Group, which have done the most to transition their services to the value-based care model, have offered letters of support for the merger.

Regardless of their rhetoric — whether about market definition or historic precedent — the most vocal merger critics are opposed to the deal for a very simple reason: They stand to lose money if the merger is approved. That may be a good reason for some hospitals to wish the merger would go away, but it is a terrible reason to actually stop it.

[This post was first published on June 27, 2016 in The Hill as “Don’t believe the critics, Aetna-Humana merger a good deal for consumers“]

In Antitrust & Competition, Health Care, Health Insurance, Justice Department, Market Definition, Merger Guidelines, Mergers & Acquisitions , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Competition, not Price Controls

Joanna Shepherd —  13 March 2016

In an effort to control drug spending, several states are considering initiatives that will impose new price controls on prescription drugs. Ballot measures under consideration in California and Ohio will require drug companies to sell drugs under various state programs at a mandated discount. And legislators in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have drafted bills that would create new government commissions to regulate the price of drugs. These state initiatives have followed proposals by presidential nominees to enact new price controls to address the high costs of pharmaceuticals.

As I explain in a new study, further price controls are a bad idea for several reasons.

First, as I discussed in a previous post, several government programs, such as Medicaid, the 340B Program, the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs drug programs, and spending in the coverage gap of Medicare Part D, already impose price controls. Under these programs, required rebates are typically calculated as set percentages off of a drug company’s average drug price. But this approach gives drug companies an incentive to raise prices; a required percentage rebate off of a higher average price can serve to offset the mandated price control.

Second, over 40 percent of drugs sold in the U.S. are sold under government programs that mandate price controls. With such a large share of their drugs sold at significant discounts, drug companies have the incentive to charge even higher prices to other non-covered patients to offset the discounts. Indeed, numerous studies and government analyses have concluded that required discounts under Medicaid and Medicare have resulted in increased prices for other consumers as manufacturers seek to offset revenue lost under price controls.

Third, evidence suggests that price controls contribute to significant drug shortages: at a below-market price, the demand for drugs exceeds the amount of drugs that manufacturers are willing or able to sell.

Fourth, price controls hinder innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Brand drug companies incur an average of $2.6 billion in costs to bring each new drug to market with FDA approval. They must offset these significant costs with revenues earned during the patent period; within 3 months after patent expiry, generic competitors will have already captured over 70 percent of the brand drugs’ market share and significantly eroded their profits. But price controls imposed on drugs under patent increase the risk that drug companies will not earn the profits they need to offset their development costs (only 20% of marketed brand drugs ever earn enough sales to cover their development cost). The result will be less R&D spending and less innovation. Indeed, a substantial body of empirical literature establishes that pharmaceutical firms’ profitability is linked to their research and development efforts and innovation.

Instead of imposing price controls, the government should increase drug competition in order to reduce drug spending without these negative consequences. Increased drug competition will expand product offerings, giving consumers more choice in the drugs they take. It will also lower prices and spur innovation as suppliers compete to attain or protect valuable market share from rivals.

First, the FDA should reduce the backlog of generic drugs awaiting approval. The single most important factor in controlling drug spending in recent decades has been the dramatic increase in generic drug usage; generic drugs have saved consumers $1.68 trillion over the past decade. But the degree to which generics reduce drug prices depends on the number of generic competitors in the market; the more competitors, the more price competition and downward pressure on prices. Unfortunately, a backlog of generic drug approvals at the FDA has restricted generic competition in many important market segments. There are currently over 3,500 generic applications pending approval; fast-tracking these FDA approvals will provide consumers with many new lower-priced drug options.

Second, regulators should expedite the approval and acceptance of biosimilars—the generic counterparts to high-priced biologic drugs. Biologic drugs are different from traditional medications because they are based on living organisms and, as a result, are far more complex and expensive to develop. By 2013, spending on biologic drugs comprised a quarter of all drug spending in the U.S., and their share of drug spending is expected increase significantly over the next decade. Unfortunately, the average cost of a biologic drug is 22 times greater than a traditional drug, making them prohibitively expensive for many consumers.

Fortunately, Congress has recognized the need for cheaper, “generic” substitutes for biologic drugs—or biosimilars. As part of the Affordable Care Act, Congress created a biosimilars approval pathway that would enable these cheaper biologic drugs to obtain FDA approval and reach patients more quickly. Nevertheless, the FDA has approved only one biosimilar for use in the U.S. despite several pending biosimilar applications. The agency has also yet to provide any meaningful guidance as to what standards it will employ in determining whether a biosimilar is interchangeable with a biologic. Burdensome requirements for interchangeability increase the difficulty and cost of biosimilar approval and limit the ease of biosimilar substitution at pharmacies.

Expediting the approval of biosimilars will increase competition in the market for biologic drugs, reducing prices and allowing more patients access to these life-saving and life-enhancing treatments. Estimates suggest that a biosimilar approval pathway at the FDA will save U.S. consumers between $44 billion and $250 billion over the next decade.

The recent surge in drug spending must be addressed to ensure that patients can continue to afford life-saving and life-enhancing medications. However, proposals calling for new price controls are the wrong approach. While superficially appealing, price controls may have unintended consequences—less innovation, drug shortages, and higher prices for some consumers—that could harm consumers rather than helping them. In contrast, promoting competition will lower pharmaceutical prices and drug spending without these deleterious effects.

 

 

 

In Antitrust & Competition, Health Care, Intellectual Property, Patent, Pharmaceuticals, Truth on the Market , , , , , , , ,
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Politicians Call for More Price Controls on Pharmaceuticals

Joanna Shepherd —  1 February 2016

Politicians have recently called for price controls to address the high costs of pharmaceuticals. Price controls are government-mandated limits on prices, or government-required discounts on prices. On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton has called for price controls for lower-income Medicare patients while Donald Trump has recently joined Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and President Obama in calling for more government intervention in the Medicare Part D program. Before embarking upon additional price controls for the drug industry, policymakers and presidential candidates would do well to understand the impacts and problems arising from existing controls.

Unbeknownst to many, a vast array of price controls are already in place in the pharmaceutical market. Over 40 percent of outpatient drug spending is spent in public programs that use price controls. In order to sell drugs to consumers covered by these public programs, manufacturers must agree to offer certain rebates or discounts on drug prices. The calculations are generally based on the Average Manufacturer Price (AMP–the average price wholesalers pay manufacturers for drugs that are sold to retail pharmacies) or the Best Price (the lowest price the manufacturer offers the drug to any purchaser including all rebates and discounts). The most significant public programs using some form of price control are described below.

  1. Medicaid

The Medicaid program provides health insurance for low-income and medically needy individuals. The legally-required rebate depends on the specific category of drug; for example, brand manufacturers are required to sell drugs for the lesser of 23.1% off AMP or the best price offered to any purchaser.

The Affordable Care Act significantly expanded Medicaid eligibility so that in 2014, the program covered approximately 64.9 million individuals, or 20 percent of the U.S. population. State Medicaid data indicates that manufacturers paid an enormous sum — in excess of $16.7 billion — in Medicaid rebates in 2012.

  1. 340B Program

The “340B Program”, created by Congress in 1992, requires drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs at significantly reduced prices to 340B-eligible entities—entities that serve a high proportion of low-income or uninsured patients. Like Medicaid, the 340B discount must be at least 23.1 percent off AMP. However, the statutory formula calculates different discounts for different products and is estimated to produce discounts that average 45 percent off average prices. Surprisingly, the formulas can even result in a negative 340B selling price for a drug, in which case manufacturers are instructed to set the drug price at a penny.

The Affordable Care Act broadened the definition of qualified buyers to include many additional types of hospitals. As a result, both the number of 340B-eligible hospitals and the money spent on 340B drugs tripled between 2005 and 2014. By 2014, there were over 14,000 hospitals and affiliated sites in the 340B program, representing about one-third of all U.S. hospitals.

The 340B program has a glaring flaw that punishes the pharmaceutical industry without any offsetting benefits for low-income patients. The 340B statute does NOT require that providers only dispense 340B drugs to needy patients. In what amounts to merely shifting profits from pharmaceutical companies to other health care providers, providers may also sell drugs purchased at the steep 340B discount to non-qualified patients and pocket the difference between the 340B discounted price and the reimbursement of the non-qualified patients’ private insurance companies. About half of the 340B entities generate significant revenues from private insurer reimbursements that exceed 340B prices.

  1. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs Drug Programs

In order to sell drugs through the Medicaid program, drug manufacturers must also provide drugs to four government agencies—the VA, Department of Defense, Public Health Service and Coast Guard—at statutorily-imposed discounts. The required discounted price is the lesser of 24% off AMP or the lowest price manufacturers charge their most-favored nonfederal customers under comparable terms. Because of additional contracts that generate pricing concessions from specific vendors, studies indicate that VA and DOD pricing for brand pharmaceuticals was approximately 41-42% of the average wholesale price.

  1. Medicare Part D

An optional Medicare prescription drug benefit (Medicare Part D) was enacted in 2005 to offer coverage to many of the nation’s retirees and disabled persons. Unlike Medicaid and the 340B program, there is no statutory rebate level on prescription drugs covered under the program. Instead, private Medicare Part D plans, acting on behalf of the Medicare program, negotiate prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers and may obtain price concessions in the form of rebates. Manufacturers are willing to offer significant rebates and discounts in order to provide drugs to the millions of covered participants. The rebates often amount to as much as a 20-30 percent discount on brand medicines. CMS reported that manufacturers paid in excess of $10.3 billion in Part D rebates in 2012.

The Medicare Part D program does include direct price controls on drugs sold in the coverage gap. The coverage gap (or “donut hole”) is a spending level in which enrollees are responsible for a larger share of their total drug costs. For 2016, the coverage gap begins when the individual and the plan have spent $3,310 on covered drugs and ends when $7,515 has been spent. Medicare Part D requires brand drug manufacturers to offer 50 percent discounts on drugs sold during the coverage gap. These required discounts will cost drug manufacturers approximately $41 billion between 2012-2021.

While existing price controls do produce lower prices for some consumers, they may also result in increased prices for others, and in the long-term may drive up prices for all.  Many of the required rebates under Medicaid, the 340B program, and VA and DOD programs are based on drugs’ AMP.  Calculating rebates from average drug prices gives manufactures an incentive to charge higher prices to wholesalers and pharmacies in order to offset discounts. Moreover, with at least 40% of drugs sold under price controls, and some programs even requiring drugs to be sold for a penny, manufacturers are forced to sell many drugs at significant discounts.  This creates incentives to charge higher prices to other non-covered patients to offset the discounts.  Further price controls will only amplify these incentives and create inefficient market imbalances.

 

In Antitrust & Competition, Health Care, Health Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, Truth on the Market , , , , , ,
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