House Passes Drug Pricing Bill

May 4, 2018

Prescription drug prices as the fastest growing cost in healthcare House approval of legislation Friday that creates transparency requirements for manufacturers of drugs having large price increases.

House Bill 5384, An Act Concerning Prescription Drug Costs, would require drug companies to justify price increases when the price of a drug jumps by 20 percent in one year or by 50 percent over three years.

The bill requires:

  1. Information about new drugs in the FDA approval pipeline so we can better plan for new drug spending on the state employee plan and Medicaid.
  2. Insurers must include information on the top 25 highest cost drugs, top 25 with greatest increases and the portion of premium that increased because of drug spending on plan when they file their rates with the state Insurance Department.
  3. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) must disclose rebates they received from drug companies and amount of rebate they passed onto consumers versus the amount they retained. Connecticut would become the first state in the country to require this.
  4. Insurers must either provide consumers with point of sale rebate at pharmacy counter or certify that they are using rebates to lower premiums

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.