July 29,2019

Grassley on Spread Pricing

Prepared Floor Remarks by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Finance Committee
On Spread Pricing
Monday, July 29, 2019
Spread pricing has historically siphoned money from state Medicaid programs and given it to pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs.
 
Drug payments in Medicaid should focus on the beneficiary, not the PBM.
 
The bipartisan prescriptiondrug legislation I introduced this month with Senator Wyden bans spread pricing.
 
This will refocus the system on paying for costs associated with prescribing a drug instead of gaming the system to reap a profit at the expense of taxpayers.
 
Medicaid funding should go to patients, not to the pockets of health care “middlemen.” 
 

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