Jan 28, 2019   SOURCE: PR NewsWire

Physicians Ask Senate Finance to Address Kickbacks, Other Factors Driving Up Drug Costs

TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Citing unaffordable costs of common, essential drugs such as insulin, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) provided testimony for the Jan 29 Senate Finance Committee hearing on high drug prices.

The answer is not a government-run pharmaceutical industry, but rather unleashing the "competitive market forces that provide abundant options and push prices down in almost every other sector of the American economy."

Specific solutions recommended by AAPS include:

    --  End the safe harbor to the Medicare Anti-Kickback Statute. A safe harbor
        created for Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), which was supposed to
        lower prices, was extended to Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). Diabetes
        patients are one group particularly hard hit by the collusion between
        these middlemen and manufacturers. For example, lower cost generic
        insulin drugs are excluded from plan formularies, when brand name
        manufacturers agree to pay larger "rebates" to PBMs.
    --  Address anti-competitive manufacturer tactics that delay introduction of
        generics. The FDA under the leadership of Scott Gottlieb, M.D., has made
        welcome progress in increasing the number of lower cost generic drugs
        available to American patients. In 2018, the agency approved 971
        generics, more than in any other year. AAPS urges reintroduction of the
        "Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples Act of 2018"
        (CREATES Act, which aims to promote drug price competition by making it
        easier for medicines whose patents have expired to be sold as less
        expensive generic versions.)
    --  Cut the red tape impeding innovative care models. Independent physicians
        are providing tremendous savings to patients with in-office dispensing
        of prescriptions that cut out the cost increases caused by middlemen
        like PBMs.  For example, a 72-year-old female patient with multiple
        chronic conditions purchases all nine of her medications through a
        Direct Primary Care office for $14.63/month. Through her Medicare
        "coverage" her cost would be $294.25 per month. Reintroduction and
        passage of the Direct Primary Care Enhancement Act would increase
        patient access to this promising delivery model by simply clarifying
        that Health Savings Accounts can be used for these arrangements.

AAPS thanks the Committee for considering this subject despite intense pressure to preserve the status quo from special interests that benefit from high prices.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties, founded in 1943. Its motto is "omnia pro aegroto," or "all for the patient."

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/physicians-ask-senate-finance-to-address-kickbacks-other-factors-driving-up-drug-costs-300785253.html

SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)