Letter to the editor: Bridenstine trying to protect long-term care
Most people are familiar with their local retail pharmacy — you get a prescription, take it to the pharmacy and go home with your medication.
Patients living in skilled nursing or other long-term care facilities, however, rely on long-term care pharmacies to provide clinical oversight and medication management services, as a majority of Medicare Part D beneficiaries residing in these settings juggle multiple prescriptions.
Long-term pharmacies are bound to the pricing terms set by pharmacy management services, third-party negotiators that have implemented unfair pricing practices that are driving up drug costs to patients and taxpayers.
Though these services claim to reduce prescription drug costs, they clearly do the opposite. For example, prices for the same prescription drug on the same day vary considerably for different payers, which raises questions about the relationship between price variation and the actual conditions of the market.
Ultimately, if management services are able to continue to negotiate drug prices unchecked, it will continue to drive up costs and jeopardize quality patient care.
Thankfully, Rep. Jim Bridenstine is stepping up to stop these veiled pricing practices by supporting House Resolution 244, the MAC Transparency Act. This legislation aims to increase transparency in service management practices and fairness in prescription drug pricing.
I commend him for co-sponsoring legislation that protects the interests of Medicare beneficiaries by ensuring access to fairly priced drugs.
Kent Abbott, Catoosa
Click here to see the original article on the Tulsa World website.
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