WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Trump administration is considering expanding Medicare’s ability to negotiate the cost of drugs by giving private payers a role in setting the price of medicines administered in hospitals and doctors’ offices, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Monday.
Azar’s comments provided more details on the plan to lower prescription drug costs for Americans announced on Friday by President Donald Trump.
While Trump assailed “middlemen,” an apparent reference to health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), for pocketing negotiated rebates on drugs rather than passing savings to consumers, the proposal discussed on Monday appears to see them as part of the solution to high prices.
Shares of leading PBMs and insurers rose on Monday. CVS Health Corp (CVS.N) shares climbed 3.7 percent with Express Scripts Holding EXRX.O up 1.2 percent, while Humana Inc (HUM.N) shares rose 1.7 percent and Cigna Corp (CI.N) closed up 2.2 percent.
“On the one hand we are talking about banning rebates, but on the other we are talking about how great the private market is at controlling costs,” said Craig Garthwaite, director of the healthcare program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “Where exactly do we think those price reductions come from?”
Trump has vowed to tackle rising drug prices since running for office, but his plan spared the pharmaceutical industry from direct government negotiations to control costs, a proposal he endorsed during the 2016 presidential campaign. Shares of drugmakers rose for a second day on Monday as Wall Street analysts said the new policies were unlikely to hurt industry
