Last week, the Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing, titled “Modernizing Health Care: How Shoppable Services Improve Outcomes and Lower Costs,” to explore how price transparency and the rise of shoppable health care services can benefit patients by promoting competition, reducing costs, and improving outcomes. The hearing highlighted how shoppable services offer patients more control over their health care decisions, allow them to compare costs and quality across providers, and promote better transparency and accountability within the entire health care system.
The expert witnesses invited to testify were Mark Cuban, co-founder of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Company; G. Keith Smith, MD, co-founder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma and the Free Market Medical Association; Don Moulds, PhD, chief health director of the California Public Employees' Retirement System; and Jeanne Lambrew, PhD, director of the health care reform and senior fellow at the Century Foundation.
One of the largest topics of discussion was the effects of pharmacy benefit managers in the health marketplace. Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Jon Husted (R-Ohio), and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) — who waived on to the committee for this hearing — all highlighted in their questions that PBMs and their monopolies are hurting community pharmacies and patients with their anti-competitive tactics.
Ranking Member Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Chairman Rick Scott (R-Fla.) specifically dug into the effects of vertical integration on pharmacies, patients, and the marketplace. Warren called out how Tricare could be impacted by PBMs and the unknown difference in how much Express Scripts is making off of their pharmacy contract when paying affiliated pharmacies versus unaffiliated pharmacies. The hearing was a great bipartisan example of how issues in the health care space can bring folks together to try and lower health care costs. If you would like to watch this hearing you can do so here.
