About: Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher
Katie Gudiksen, Ph.D., is the Executive Editor for The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition. Dr. Gudiksen is an expert in healthcare reform and the drivers of healthcare costs, with a special interest in market consolidation and state policies to address market power. She has helped draft model legislation to improve state merger review processes and to prohibit anticompetitive terms in contracts between insurers and health systems. Her current work focuses on evaluating the options states have to restrict excessive provider prices, including cost-growth benchmarks and state public options.Updated – Source Short: Congress Acts to Ban Gag-clauses in Pharmacy Contracts
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher September 27, 2018
*Updated: September 27, 2018 On Tuesday, September 25, the House voted to pass the Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act, so the bill currently awaits President Trump’s Signature. In addition, both the House and Senate passed the Know the Lowest Price Act of 2018 (S.2553), which bans gag-clauses in Medicare Advantage or Medicare Part D plans. In a tweet on September 17, President Trump expressed his support of legislation that will remove gag clauses. As a result, gag-clauses at pharmacy counters will likely be prohibited, so pharmacists will be …
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Source Short: Senate Passes Legislation Banning Gag-clauses in Pharmacy Contracts
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher September 19, 2018
On Monday, September 17, the Senate overwhelmingly passed S.2554, the Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act, with a vote of 98-2.[1] Congress appears to be building on the momentum of recent state action to prohibit gag-clauses that prevent pharmacists from telling insured patients when the cost of their co-payment exceeds the cash price of the drug. While the Senate bill does not forbid pharmacists from collecting more than the cash price for a prescription, it does allow them to tell patients when their out-of-pocket costs using their health plan …
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Spotlight on 2018 State Drug Legislation: Part 4 – Price Gouging Prohibitions
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher September 11, 2018
*Update: This post was written before the end of the 2018 legislative session. For the most recent count of states that passed these legislation, see the Spotlight on 2018 State Drug Legislation Summary: The Year in Review or download our Summary Chart. In this installment of The Source’s Spotlight on State Drug Legislation, we focus on price gouging prohibitions. In 2017, Maryland became a pioneer among states addressing rising drug costs when it passed the first law (HB 631) to prevent price gouging in the pharmaceutical market. At the start …
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Spotlight on 2018 State Drug Legislation: Part 3 – Pharmacist Gag Clauses
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher August 28, 2018
*Last Update: This post was written before the end of the 2018 legislative session. For the most recent count of states that passed these legislation, see the Spotlight on 2018 State Drug Legislation Summary: The Year in Review or download our Summary Chart. *Updated 10/10/18: Since the original publication, the federal government enacted laws to ensure a federal ban on pharmaceutical gag-clauses. On Wednesday, October 10, President Trump signed into law both bills passed by Congress to ban gag clauses in pharmacy contracts: the Patient Right to Know Drug Prices …
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Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher August 8, 2018
*Update: This post was written before the end of the 2018 legislative session. For the most recent count of states that passed these legislation, see the Spotlight on 2018 State Drug Legislation Summary: The Year in Review or download our Summary Chart. Prescription drug spending remains an important issue to many Americans. According to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the affordability of prescription drugs is the top health care priority for voters.[1] In response to public outcry, many states have taken up the mantle of improving affordability and …
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Spotlight on 2018 State Drug Legislation: Part 1 – Drug Importation: The Next Frontier for State-action to Control Prescription Drug Costs
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher July 27, 2018
*Update: This post was written before the end of the 2018 legislative session. For the most recent count of states that passed these legislation, see the Spotlight on 2018 State Drug Legislation Summary: The Year in Review or download our Summary Chart. In the most recent legislative sessions, states have demonstrated they are increasingly willing to use their power to target prescription drug prices. In 2018, only two states with active legislative sessions, North Carolina and Alabama, did not consider legislation with the aim of reducing prescription drug costs. Of …
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Update on Massachusetts’ Waiver Request to use a Drug Formulary for Medicaid
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher July 9, 2018
On June 27, 2018, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) denied Massachusetts’ request to implement a closed drug formulary in its Medicaid program. In a previous post, the Source described the request and explained why it has the potential to save the state millions of dollars every year. In denying the request, CMS said that it would consider the waiver if Massachusetts no longer used the federal Medicaid Drug Rebate Program in which manufacturers give the state rebates when the state purchases a drug to ensure that Medicaid …
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Reference Pricing: When Transparency Is Not Enough
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher June 12, 2018
In most markets, consumers can compare prices and shop for the items they want. For example, to buy a new pair of shoes, a consumer can typically drive to a shopping mall and choose from a number of stores. Each store typically carries a number of different styles and brands. The consumer might choose to pay $500 for a designer pair of heels or $25 for an inexpensive pair of tennis shoes. The consumer can also shop online and have the shoes shipped to his or her home. Regardless of …
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Will Putting “American Patients First” Result in Lower Drug Prices?
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher May 30, 2018
On May 11, 2018, the Trump Administration released American Patients First, a blueprint to lower drug costs (the blueprint). The report details four challenges with the prescription drug market, including high list prices for drugs, high and rising out-of-pocket costs for patients, government programs that overpay for drugs due to the lack of negotiation tools, and foreign governments “free-riding” off of American investment in innovation. To address these challenges, the report also lays out four key strategies for reform, including a list of more than fifty recommendations with both immediate and …
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State Medicaid Programs are a Tool to Address Rising Drug Costs
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher May 8, 2018
Rising prescription drug prices concern nearly all Americans, with 80% reporting that drug prices are “unreasonable”. The problem of rising drug expenditures is particularly acute for state Medicaid programs, which provide health coverage for low-income and disabled Americans. Medicaid serves nearly one in five Americans including many with chronic conditions, and purchases about 10% of total prescription medications dispensed in the U.S.[1] Furthermore, Medicaid’s nationwide drug spending increased almost 50% between 2013 and 2016 (from $22.4 billion to $33.4 billion).[2] In a survey of Medicaid programs, 36 states reported increased cost containment efforts for prescription drugs …
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