Kinzinger pushes for fair pricing in Medicaid drug rebate program

U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) introduced bipartisan legislation last week to protect patients by forcing pharmaceutical companies to more accurately calculate prices of medication in the Medicaid drug rebate program.

“Patients across the country are dying because they cannot afford the medication they need. This is unacceptable and it has to stop,” Rep. Kinzinger said.

Rep. Kinzinger introduced the Fair and Accurate Medicaid Pricing Act, H.R. 3276, on June 13 with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA). The legislation would amend the Social Security Act to exclude authorized generic drugs from calculation of the average manufacturer price for purposes of the Medicaid drug rebate program, according to the text of the bill.

“For far too long, drug manufacturers have utilized a loophole in our Medicaid drug rebate system to reduce their own financial obligations by selling their authorized generic products at a lower price to secondary manufacturers,” the congressman said. “These lower prices are then included when calculating the rebate obligation the manufacturer owes to the federal and state governments, which leaves taxpayers responsible for more of the costs.”

This loophole utilized by pharmaceutical companies costs taxpayers up to $600 million per year, according to the lawmaker’s office.

Rep. Kinzinger added that he was proud to introduce legislation “to force accurate pricing and help close this egregious loophole that has put a much too costly burden on patients in my district and across the country.”

A bipartisan companion bill was recently introduced in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Todd Young (R-IN) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH).