The Senate's minibus spending bill has provisions to
regulate direct-to-consumer drug advertisements and to require price
transparency in ads.
By
Sara Heath
August 28, 2018 - Better drug
price transparency in direct-to-consumer marketing plays a key role in a
funding package that has recently passed in the Senate.
In a bipartisan amendment funding
both the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) and Defense committees –
referred to as a minibus spending bill – Senators agreed that drug companies
must disclose the costs of their medications in direct-to-consumer
advertisements. The minibus as passed in the Senate calls for $1 million in
funding to create regulations for drug advertisements as part of these cost
disclosures.
Ideally, better price transparency
in drug advertising will improve patient empowerment, create competition through
cost comparison and price shopping, and lower drug costs, according to Senators
Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), two legislators who supported the
price transparency amendments.
“This drug pricing proposal was
supported by both Democratic and Republican senators, the American Association
of Retired Persons, the American Medical Association,
America’s health insurance plans, 76 percent of the American people,
President Donald Trump, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The only group who opposed it? Big Pharma,” Durbin said in a statement. “What Senator Grassley
and I wanted to do is to give the American people
more information about drug costs. More information gives transparency to
the transaction, and will help give American consumers a break and start to
slow down the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs.”
Currently, drug manufacturers spend
about $6 billion on direct-to-consumer advertisements, Durbin and Grassley
reported.
These advertisements do excellent
work to educate patients about the impacts of a
medication and the potential side effects, Grassley pointed out. It is high
time they also educate patients about the costs associated with these drugs.
“What we’ve been trying to do is
pretty simple. Bringing transparency to drug pricing and educating the public
about the cost of their prescriptions is common sense,” Grassley asserted.
“We’re building on what the
pharmaceutical industry is already doing,” he continued. “In their ads, these
companies educate consumers on new drugs and their side effects. This bill goes
one step further by educating the public on pricing. That’s why there’s a broad
coalition of support for this legislation. This is long overdue and will be a
great service to health care consumers throughout the country.”
These proposed changes come at a
time where patient financial responsibility is increasing. Patients are bearing
the brunt of more of their medication costs, either through increased
out-of-pocket spending or higher insurance costs.
What’s more, patients are often left
unprepared for these higher healthcare bills.
Patients often experience “sticker shock” when purchasing their medications,
and in many cases must forego their medications or reduce medication adherence
to make ends meet.
Potential regulations calling for
price transparency in drug advertisements will ideally mitigate that sticker
shock, while fostering industry competition and reducing costs.
These price transparency provisions
came as a part of the Senate’s “minibus” appropriations, which passed in an
85-7 vote on August 23. The minibus spending package combined proposed spending
for the HELP committee and the Defense committee.
In addition to appropriations for
military and veteran spending, as well as the price transparency advertising
regulations, the minibus includes increased spending on healthcare research
conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Specifically, the minibus provides
funding for Alzheimer’s research, Clinical and Translational Science Awards
program, The National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria,
The BRAIN initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative
Neurotechnologies), research as a part of the Precision Medicine Initiative,
and The Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program.
The Senate bill awaits discussion in
the House of Representatives, which passed its own version of a minibus bill
earlier this summer. Debate will follow the House’s current recess.
While portions about defense
spending and the price transparency provisions have received bipartisan support
and are likely to receive the House seal of approval, the rest of the spending
bill may not be a done deal.
Critics say the Senate minibus bill does not do
enough to consolidate parts of the NIH and other health-related departments.
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