On November 9, MedPage Today quoted Marsha Simon for her view on drug provisions of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the House of Representatives last Friday. First, she commented on a provision imposing a three-year delay in implementing a rule relating to prescription drug rebates. The rule, finalized by the Trump administration, would force rebates paid by drug companies to go directly to consumers, instead of pharmacy benefit managers (which use them to decrease Part D premiums).
Marsha noted that the drug rebate rule “is a policy that this administration (and probably the last one) was not going to implement, since it would cost the Medicare program billions by removing the incentive for Part D prescription drug plans to negotiate lower drug prices.” Marsha called the provision to delay the rebate rule “particularly meaningless” and added that “it is a revenue-raiser thanks to arcane ‘scoring’ rules.”
In addition, Marsha spoke about a provision requiring that manufacturers of certain single-dose drugs covered under Medicare Part B provide refunds for any drug product left over after a vial is used up. Marsha said this provision “has more merit and some urgency. Manufacturers follow the practice to earn higher reimbursement from Medicare (nearly $1 billion for discarded medicine in 2019). Another consequence of the practice is the misuse of injectable anti-viral, pain, and cancer care drugs as doses intended for one patient are split among patients.”