Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM)
Litigation and Enforcement Highlights – January 2019
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor January 15, 2019
Happy 2019! In this New Years issue, we recap the final litigation and enforcement moments of 2018. In antitrust litigation, we look closer at a major developing lawsuit that brings anticompetitive generic drug pricing practices into the national spotlight. Also, two federal appeals courts weighed in on antitrust litigation in the commercial health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, respectively. In enforcement action, we discuss the final mega merger of 2018 and what its approval means for the healthcare market. Massive Antitrust Lawsuit Keeps Snowballing Toward Judgment Day for Generic Drugmakers […]
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Recapping the 2017-2018 California Legislative Session (Part 1): Incremental Steps Made in Targeting High Drug Costs and Achieving Single Payer
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher January 8, 2019
After considering 5,617 bills and resolutions, the two year California legislative cycle has come to a conclusion. As health care costs become more scrutinized, more bills than ever have emerged to target these costs. While not all of those bills passed, a significant amount of bills that did pass as well as the notable bills that failed coalesce around four themes: targeting high costs of prescription drugs, working towards a single payer system, regulating competition, and limiting high health costs. This post will focus on the first two themes: high […]
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Spotlight on 2018 State Drug Legislation Summary: The Year in Review
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher December 17, 2018
*Last Updated: February 4, 2019. In 2018, states showed an increasing eagerness to further regulate the pharmaceutical market with the goal of decreasing prices and increasing access to prescription drugs for their residents. This year, forty-four states considered 227 bills to address rising drug costs, of which 55 became laws in thirty-two states. Only two states with active legislative sessions, North Carolina and Alabama, did not consider legislation with the aim of reducing prescription drug costs or ensuring access to prescription.[1] In the first six parts of the “Spotlight on […]
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Spotlight on 2018 State Drug Legislation: Part 6 – Pharmacy Benefit Manager Regulation
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher November 20, 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 2018 legislative session, ten states passed fourteen bills to regulate pharmacy benefit mangers (PBMs). In total, 27 states considered 49 bills to regulate PBMs (see map below). This number does not include bills that relate to PBMs only as to gag-clauses in contracts with pharmacists or […]
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Litigation and Enforcement Highlights – November 2018
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor November 15, 2018
The theme last month in litigation and enforcement action seems to be drug pricing. As the national debate surrounding rising prescription drug prices continues to heat up, we are seeing increasing legal action targeting the cause of such price hikes at the private, state, and federal levels. In our highlights this month, we look at how drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers are coming under fire for their drug pricing practices, and how two states have turned to the Supreme Court to salvage their laws designed to rein in rising […]
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AB 315: Mandating PBM Registration and Disclosures – An Important Step to Increasing Drug Price Transparency and Competition
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher September 25, 2018
AB 315, considered to be a complementary bill to SB 17, which mandated prescription drug pricing transparency, is an important bill that would ensure more transparency of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) by regulating PBMs and gathering data on how PBMs impact the dispensing of certain prescription drugs. The intent of the bill is to allow consumers to purchase drugs at the lowest price by allowing purchasers, like health plans, to keep PBMs accountable for the savings PBMs promised. However, this bill almost didn’t come to be. AB 315 was sent […]
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Litigation and Enforcement Highlights – September 2018
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor September 17, 2018
In this month’s Litigation and Enforcement Highlights, we recap two small but meaningful wins in courts for state legislation aimed at controlling rising drug prices. We also take a peek at the newest developments of two potential mega mergers and the legal challenge against the Affordable Care Act, both of which could change the landscape of the healthcare industry. Judge Boots Challenge Against California’s Transparency Law on Technicality In the latest development of the legal challenge against California’s recently passed SB 17, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern […]
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California Legislative Beat: Transformative Healthcare Bills of 2018 (Pt. 2)
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher July 23, 2018
Year two of California’s 2017-2018 legislative session continues to be an active one with the introduction of new innovative healthcare bills. As lawmakers work diligently, this month’s California Legislative Beat continues to look at some 2018 bills that can potentially change the California healthcare landscape. AB 2499: This bill would increase the medical loss ratio (MLR) by 5%, from 85% to 90% for a health plan or health insurer in the large group market, and from 80% to 85% for a health plan or health insurer in the individual market. […]
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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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Litigation and Enforcement Highlights – May 2018
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor May 15, 2018
Several major court decisions were handed down last month that may leave lasting impacts in terms of price and competition in the healthcare industry. Specifically, the 4thCircuit Court of Appeals ruled Maryland’s Price Gouging Law unconstitutional, while the Supreme Court upheld inter partes review, a controversial patent review process. In antitrust enforcement, the Justice Department began its review of the Cigna-Express Scripts merger. 4thCircuit Strikes Down Maryland Price Gouging Law In a significant victory for the pharmaceutical industry, the 4thU.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found Maryland’s landmark 2017 law, […]
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