From September 12, 2022 post

Lawmakers press administration to permanently repeal drug rebate rule after successfully delaying implementation through the Inflation Reduction Act

On Friday, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01) sent a letter urging the Biden Administration to permanently repeal a 2019 drug rebate rule. In addition to protecting Americans from rising health care costs, permanent repeal of the rule would save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The rule was delayed in the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act but is set to be implemented in 2032.

“The original Inflation Reduction Act would have permanently prohibited implementation of the Rule Relating to Eliminating the Anti-Kick-Back Statute Safe Harbor Protection for Prescription Drug Rebates,” the lawmakers wrote. “This provision would have saved $122 billion through 2031 and, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, more than $500 billion over two decades.”

The lawmakers continued, “While delaying implementation of the rule provides significant savings, long-term deficit reduction is substantially reduced absent full repeal. Your administration has the authority to fix this problem and achieve the full amount of long-term deficit reduction intended in the Inflation Reduction Act.”

Although the original rule was intended to decrease drug costs by eliminating rebates negotiated between drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) or health plan sponsors in Medicare, a report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services showed that the rule instead would raise drug premiums for seniors by 19 percent.

The full letter can be found here. 

Congressman Pappas has been a consistent advocate for lowering prescription drug costs since his election to Congress. In August 2022, he helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act to bring down the cost of health care and prescription drugs.

Original source can be found here.