Modern Healthcare
11/30/2015
A How-To for Lowering Drug Costs
Two of the nation's leading advocates for pricing drugs based on value have issued a new menu of cost-control options for policymakers, insurers and healthcare system pharmacists.
Their goal is to force drugmakers to price their products in alignment with their benefits to patients and budget impact on the health care system.
Steps they say will help control drug prices include:
- Create more expensive tiers for patient co-payments on overpriced drugs
- Set a value price on the drug (not market price), and ten incorporate that amount into the inpatient and outpatient Medicare payments
- When a company sets an exorbitant launch price on a new drug, allow the FDA to give priority review to any company that comes to market with a similar or more effective drug that is priced closer to its true medical value
- Extend the patent exclusivity period for drugs that are priced based on their actual medical value, and shorten the patent life of overpriced drugs
Read the full article here.
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