Feds want public input on key provisions, including how to impose civil monetary penalties on drugmakers.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Thursday made a plea for public input after unveiling a rough outline and timeframe for implementing the Medicare Prescription Drug Inflation Rebate Program.
The program, a key component of President Joe Biden's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, slaps civil penalties on drugmakers whose prices for drugs supplied to Medicare Part B and Part D rise faster than inflation in the overall economy, particularly for brand name drugs, which CMS says make up 80% of all prescription drug spending.
The overage collected from drugmakers will be returned to the Medicare Trust Fund.
In a media availability Thursday afternoon, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure says her agency is "extremely mindful of trying to implement this law, well-knowing we are under a really tight timeframe."
"That's one of the reasons why we really tried to outline where we're going to be asking for comments to give people a real sense of the opportunities for engagement," Brooks-LaSure says.
"The items that we're putting out today, the draft guidance, asking for comments, are just some of the many ways that we are engaging with all interested parties around the implementation of this act."
Brooks-LaSure says CMS will lead monthly technical calls with drugmakers to apprise them of program updates, and will also meet regularly with patient groups, providers, and other stakeholders as the policy takes shape.
"There are a variety of ways in which we are engaging because it's very important to us to hear from all interested parties and really incorporate all of the factors and expertise and experiences as we thoughtfully implement this law," she says.
Input Sought
CMS says it is seeking input from stakeholders in a number of areas, including: the process to determine the number of drug units for rebatable drugs; reduction of rebate amounts for certain Part B and Part D rebatable drugs in shortage and in cases of severe supply chain disruptions; the process to impose civil monetary penalties on manufacturers of Part D rebatable drugs that fail to pay rebates; and assuring accuracy of the inflation rebate payments. The deadline for public comments is March 11.
"Public feedback is critical to successful implementation of the new drug law," says Meena Seshamani, MD, PhD, CMS deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare. "Technical expertise and feedback from a wide range of interested parties is crucial for our ability to strike the right balance in implementing the law, ensuring access to affordable and innovative therapies."
A spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) says the drug lobby is reviewing the rough draft and is not yet ready to comment.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-OR, who earlier this month sent a letter to Brooks-LaSure asking for a public "when and how" update on the program, says Thursday he is "pleased to see CMS beginning this transformational Medicare policy to protect seniors from price gouging by drug companies."
"It's long past time that seniors stop footing the bill for rip offs that pad Big Pharma's profits," Wyden says. "There have never been price gouging penalties in Medicare before, and I am confident that these policies are going to deliver real savings for Americans."
"Critically, price hike rebates in Medicare Part B, which pays for drugs administered in the doctor’s office, will go straight to lowering seniors' coinsurance later this spring."
Timeline
The law took effect for Part B drugs at the start of the federal fiscal year on October 1, 2022, and for Part D drugs on January 1, 2023.
* On April 1, Medicare and Medicare Advantage enrollees may pay a lower coinsurance for some Part B drugs with prices that outstrip inflation.
* In Q4 2023 – CMS will issue revised guidance for the implementation, with timing adjusted if necessary.
* On September 30, 2025, CMS will bill drug companies for the Part B inflation rebates they owe Medicare for calendar quarters in 2023 and 2024.
* On December 31, 2025, CMS will bill drugmakers for Part D inflation rebates they owe Medicare for the 12-months between October 1, 2022 and October 1, 2023.
CMS noted that if the prescription drug law had been in effect between July 2021 to July 2022, more than 1,200 prescription drugs would have been subject to the inflation rebates.
"There is no reason Americans should have to pay two to three times more for the same drugs than people in other countries," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra says.
"We are fighting to rein in the excessive cost of skyrocketing prescription drug prices, and now drug companies that increase their prices faster than the rate of inflation will have to pay rebates back to the Medicare Trust Fund."
Centene admits no wrongdoing in the settlement, but will pay back twice the value of its inflated price reporting.
Centene Corp. will pay $215 million to resolve California False Claims Act allegations that two of its managed care subsidiaries inflated drug costs to extract money from Medi-Cal.
It's the latest settlement for St. Louis-based Centene, which manages benefits for nearly 16 million Medicaid recipients nationwide.
California Healthline reports that Centene and its subsidiaries are being investigated in more than 20 states for similar allegations of prescription drug overcharges and have so far paid back about $939 million to 17 states.
"Medi-Cal is a lifeline that provides access to free or affordable healthcare services for millions of Californians," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Wednesday.
"When companies overcharge the Medi-Cal system, it drains valuable resources from the people who rely on this care. Today's settlement is a win — it brings resources directly back to our state."
Centene issued a statement saying: "This no-fault agreement reflects the significance we place on addressing their concerns and our ongoing commitment to making the delivery of healthcare local, simple and transparent."
The Centene subsidiaries -- California Health & Wellness and Health Net -- manage Medi-Cal services for beneficiaries in more than 20 California counties.
An investigation by the California Department of Justice found that between in 2017 and 2018 the two managed care subsidiaries reported inflated figures for the costs they incurred in providing prescription drugs.
Investigators said Centene leveraged advantages in its pharmacy benefit manager contracts to save its managed care plans $2.70 per prescription drug claim over the two-years.
DOJ alleges that Centene and its PBM failed to disclose or pass on these discounted fees to Medi-Cal, which inflated fees and drug costs reported to California.
The $215.4 million settlement recovers twice the value of Centene's inflated price reporting.
President raps 'record profits' from insulin sales; pushes $35 universal cap.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday night used his State of the Union address to scold "Big Pharma" for reaping "record profits" from insulin sales, and urged Congress to support a universal $35-a-month cap on the price of the life-sustaining diabetes drug.
Noting that Americans "pay more for prescription drugs than any major country on Earth," Biden used the occasion to single-out drugmakers for many of the financial woes plaguing healthcare consumers, Medicare and Medicaid.
He cited insulin costs as a prime example of drugmakers' greed.
"Every day, millions need insulin to control their diabetes so they can stay alive," Biden told Congress. "Insulin has been around for 100 years. The guy who invented it didn't even patent it because he wanted everyone to have it. It costs drug companies just $10 a vial to make. But, Big Pharma has been unfairly charging people hundreds of dollars – and making record profits."
However, the Inflation Reduction Act on Jan. 1 capped at $35-a-month the out-of-pocket costs Medicare enrollees pay for insulin, saving them – and the federal government -- billions of dollars. Biden said the price cap should be available to everyone.
"There are millions of other Americans who are not on Medicare, including 200,000 young people with Type I diabetes who need insulin to save their lives," Biden said. "Let's finish the job this time. Let's cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for every American who needs it."
The IRA also gives – for the first time -- the Department of Health and Human Services the power to negotiate what it will pay for Medicare's drugs, and caps out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare enrollees at $2,000 a year. In addition, drugmakers whose prices increase faster than the rate of inflation are also required to refund the overage to Medicare.
"Bringing down prescription drug costs doesn't just save seniors money," Biden said. "It will cut the federal deficit, saving taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars on the prescription drugs the government buys for Medicare. Why wouldn't we want to do that?"
PHRMA Responds
Stephen J. Ubl, president / CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), said in a media release that drugmakers "are eager to work with the president on these important priorities."
The PhRMA chief noted that Biden also used his SOTU address to renew his call for a "Cancer Moonshot," and to prepare for future disease epidemics, both of which would rely heavily upon drugmakers' research and manufacturing.
"Unfortunately, the (IRA) also put in place policies that are already impacting the research and development we need to achieve some of the goals President Biden laid out," Ubl said.
"The government price setting provisions in the law are forcing companies to make difficult choices," Ubl says, "including shifting focus away from certain types of medicines and discouraging the research that takes place after medicines are first approved – threatening the very research that remains critical to improving outcomes for cancer and other diseases."
Ubl said the IRA also falls short "in the broader healthcare system that drive up people's costs at the pharmacy."
"Capping the costs of insulin helps some patients – especially those who aren't benefiting from the average 84% discount insurers and their middlemen get for insulin – but it leaves behind many others," Ubl says. "It's a band-aid on a broken system that's forcing people to pay more for medicines than health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers pay."
Justice officials note that the withdrawn guidance hasn't kept pace with the rapidly changing healthcare landscape.
The U.S. Justice Department has withdrawn three, decades-old antitrust policy statements affecting healthcare markets, calling the guidance "outdated" and their removal "long overdue."
"The healthcare industry has changed a lot since 1993, and the withdrawal of that era's out of date guidance is long overdue," Assistant AG Jonathan Kanter of DOJ's Antitrust Division says in a media release. "The Antitrust Division will continue to work to ensure that its enforcement efforts reflect modern market realities."
DOJ says the "withdrawal of the three statements is the best course of action for promoting competition and transparency."
"Over the past three decades since this guidance was first released, the healthcare landscape has changed significantly," DOJ says. "As a result, the statements are overly permissive on certain subjects, such as information sharing, and no longer serve their intended purposes of providing encompassing guidance to the public on relevant healthcare competition issues in today's environment."
"Recent enforcement actions and competition advocacy in healthcare provide guidance to the public, and a case-by-case enforcement approach will allow the Division to better evaluate mergers and conduct in healthcare markets that may harm competition."
Guidance documents are non-binding and do not create legal rights or obligations.
What This Means
HealthLeaders swapped emails with Zachary M. Johns, an antitrust law expert and partner at Morgan Lewis, and asked him for a quick breakdown what transpired at DOJ.
HL: Why were the policies withdrawn?
Johns: This development is not entirely unexpected as it follows the trendline of the antitrust agencies' statements in other contexts that they will be more critical of health care transaction and information exchanges going forward.
A DOJ representative publicly commented that the DOJ's understanding of healthcare economics has evolved and that healthcare, as a data-intensive industry, relies on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other advanced tools to deliver products or services. Given these changes, almost all of which are technology drive, the DOJ felt that the statements no longer reflected market realities.
HL: How will the withdrawal of these policies affect healthcare M&A?
Johns: While the withdrawal of the guidance does not change the law, it does signal an increased interest in enforcement in this area, which is unsurprising given DOJ's public statements over the past year. This move may also create some uncertainty for provider networks more generally as the policy statements addressed how those networks could minimize antitrust risk.
It is unclear how much of a risk this actually is, though, as the FTC and DOJ have not (yet) withdrawn their respective guidance on clinical integration and financial risk sharing that is embodied in their advisory opinions and business review letters (in addition to the now-withdrawn policy statements).
HL: Are further policies likely to be amended or withdrawn?
Johns: It is yet to be determined if the agencies take further steps to withdraw past guidance over the coming weeks. If they do, it could signal a more significant change in enforcement on those issues.
HL: Anything else?
Johns: The DOJ seems primarily focused on the impact that advanced technologies, such as AI and algorithmic pricing, are having across health care and other industries to which the guidance has more broadly been applied. It is also clear that the DOJ thinks the safe harbors for benchmarking activities are no longer adequate to guard against potential anticompetitive harms.
The supermarket chain is the latest mega-retailer to enter the digital healthcare space.
Albertsons Companies, Inc. has launched a digital health and wellness platform that the Boise-based grocery chain says will incentivize customers to take better care of themselves.
"Sincerely Health" is now available on the retailer's 16 "banner" grocery apps and websites, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Shaw's, Star Market, Jewel-Osco, Acme, and Tom Thumb.
Omer Gajial, chief digital officer and EVP health at Albertsons Cos., says the platform is designed to help improve lives by connecting, educating, encouraging and rewarding customers so they can make informed choices about food, physical activity, sleep and mindfulness.
"We are introducing Sincerely Health with a singular intention to improve lives," Gajial says. "As a grocery and pharmacy retailer committed to the health and wellness of our communities, we are empowering customers to have a connected and personalized view of their health across food, nutrition, activity, mental well-being and pharmacy services, enabling them to make more informed choices."
The platform is a collaboration with payers, providers, and technology organizations, relies on insights from more 10,000 customers and associates, and will continually evolve based on customer feedback, new features, collaborations, and other enhancements, Gajial says.
Consumers who sign up for the platform will be given a brief questionnaire that creates a health score based on "seven dimensions of well-being," the company says. The scores are calculated using actuarially based lifestyle factors such as age, gender, nutrition, lifestyle choices and mental health.
Consumers can to link activity trackers such as Apple Health, Fitbit and Google Fit, and log their vitals and medications and set goals to improve their health scores, track their progress, and get rewards for attaining goals.
Sincerely Health also manages prescriptions, scheduling vaccine appointments and connecting users with general practitioners via telehealth.
Customers who use the platform will get up to $25 off a future grocery purchase, and they can earn additional points as the reach more health goals.
Albertsons Companies operate 24 "banner" stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia, including 2,270 retail food and drug stores with 1,720 pharmacies.
A new study highlights the complex dynamic between consumer advertising for prescription drugs and patients and clinicians.
The pharmaceutical industry spends more money on advertising for drugs with lower health benefits, a new study shows.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the share of promotional spending allocated to advertising averaged 14.3 percentage points higher for drugs with low added benefit compared to drugs with high added benefit.
The analysis, to be published online in JAMA on February 7, also revealed that 92 of the 135 drugs (68%) examined by the researchers—of the top-selling prescription drugs sold in 2020— were rated as offering low added benefit.
Because the U.S. does not rate prescription drugs for comparative effectiveness, the researchers used France and Canada's ratings of the same prescription drugs sold in the U.S., some under different brand names.
The researchers say their findings highlight the complex dynamic between consumer advertising for prescription drugs and patients and clinicians.
"The findings suggest that shifting promotional dollars to direct-to-consumer advertising potentially reflects a strategy to drive patient demand for drugs that clinicians would be less likely to prescribe," says study lead author Michael DiStefano, PhD, an assistant scientist in Bloomberg's Department of Health Policy and Management.
The U.S. and New Zealand are the only countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs.
The median promotional spending per drug in the study sample, including to patients and clinicians, was $20.9 million in 2020. The median spending per drug on direct-to-consumer advertising was 13.5% of promotional budgets.
Since 1996, annual direct-to-consumer advertising budgets for prescription drugs have increased from $1.3 billion to, in 2016, $6 billion.
Earlier research suggests that direct-to-consumer advertising increases patient requests for advertised drugs and increases chances that clinicians will comply.
While patient requests for advertised drugs may present a chance to discuss treatment options, the researchers say this may also lead to tension if the patient requests are refused.
"When a consumer sees these advertisements on TV or social media, they should really question if it's the best drug for them and have a conversation with their provider," DiStefano says.
The study drew from IQVIA databases that report national sales estimates and promotional spending for pharmaceutical drugs. The analysis focused on 134 of the 150 top-selling branded prescription drugs in 2020. These 150 drugs represented 60% of all U.S. drug sales in 2020. Sixteen drugs were excluded from the primary analysis due to missing data. The percent of total promotional spending allocated to DTCA for each product was computed.
France uses five possible ratings for added benefit—major, important, moderate, minor, and none. Canada uses four categories—breakthrough, substantial, moderate, slight/none.
The ratings are based on clinical research. For their rating categories, the researchers aggregated the top three ratings into "high added benefit" and the remaining ratings into "low added benefit" from France and Canada's ratings. Both countries use their ratings to inform pricing, DiStephano says.
The researchers also found a large variation of spending on direct-to-consumer advertising among the prescription drugs analyzed in the study. Manufacturers of six of the best-selling drugs spent more than 90% of their promotional budget targeting consumers versus clinicians.
These drugs include treatment options for motor neuropathy, various cancers, including breast cancers, multiple sclerosis, and HIV. Drugs treating metabolism and the digestive tract had a significantly lower share of total promotional spending on direct-to-consumer advertising.
The authors concede that they looked at only one year, that their data did not capture all promotions, such as patient coupons, and that France's and Canada's ratings may reflect different value judgements.
"This comes down to a consumer issue, not necessarily a policy issue," says Gerard Anderson, PhD, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management and senior author of the study.
"Another consideration is the U.S. doesn't currently rate prescription drugs," Anderson says. "Imagine if the drug ads you saw on TV were required to tell you how well the drug performed against alternative drugs for the same disease. That might change how interested you would be in the drug."
The IRA provisions took effect for Medicare Part B drugs on October 1, 2022, and for Part D drugs on January 1, 2023.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-OR, wants the Biden administration to make public "when and how" price-gouging penalties on drug makers will be imposed under the Inflation Reduction Act.
"The Finance Committee will be paying close attention to how the inflation rebate provisions work to lower prices for seniors and hold manufacturers accountable if they continue to raise prices beyond the rate of inflation," Wyden wrote in a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.
In addition to giving CMS the power to negotiate some drug prices, another key component of the IRA – enacted in August, 2022 -- slaps civil penalties on drug makers whose prices for drugs supplied to Medicare Part B and Part D rise faster than inflation in the overall economy.
The law took effect for Part B drugs at the start of the federal fiscal year on October 1, 2022, and for Part D drugs on January 1, 2023.
"The information requested is critical to ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries understand the broad reach of the IRA and the inflation rebate provisions that intend to protect them," Wyden wrote.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the IRA's inflation mandates will save Medicare more than $63 billion over the next decade.
Wyden noted that drug companies have announced price increases on 872 drugs since January 1. He cited a September 2022 report from the Department of Health and Human Services which found that more than 3,000 drugs saw price hikes in 2022, and that between July 2021 and July 2022, price increases on 1,216 drugs outpaced inflation, with an average price increase of 32%.
The HHS report also found that:
Most prescription drug price increases occur in either January or July each year, with the greatest number taking place in January. The number of increases in both months during 2022 was higher than in previous years.
In January 2022, the average price increase was nearly $150 per drug (10%), and in July 2022, it was $250 (7.8%). The dollar increases were larger than for the same months in previous years.
In 2022, several drugs increased their list prices by more than $20,000 or by more than 500%.
Wyden asked Brooks-LaSure to make public how the price-gouging provisions of the IRA will be implemented, including "a distinct timeline" for both Part B and Part D drugs, how the rebates will be calculated, and the "steps CMS is taking to help ensure invoices will go out on a timely basis."
"It is my strong hope that manufacturers that increase prices above inflation will be penalized promptly," Wyden wrote.
Senate Scrutiny Intensifies
Wyden's letter was the second this week to be made public by Senators hoping to curb price-gouging and other abuses in the pharmaceutical industry.
"The pharmaceutical industry's shameless abuse of the patent system has driven costs sky-high for consumers by keeping generics off the market and stifling innovation," Blumenthal says. "Our common-sense reforms will protect competition and reduce prices at the pharmacy."
Almost all government actions to address the soaring costs of prescription drugs have overwhelming public support, regardless of political party affiliation. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released in October 2022 found that 88% of respondents favored capping drug price hikes to no more than the rate of inflation.
The bill 'puts an end to practices that prioritize profits for pharmaceutical companies ahead of Americans' health.'
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators has introduced legislation to curb anticompetitive patent law abuse by "bad actors" in the pharmaceutical industry.
The Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act, introduced this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee and sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), would lower drug prices for consumers by removing bad-faith, cumbersome hurdles in the patent review process such as the "patent dance" and "product hopping" that critics say are exploited by drug makers to delay market entry for cheaper generic and biosimilar alternatives, according to their joint media release.
"The pharmaceutical industry's shameless abuse of the patent system has driven costs sky-high for consumers by keeping generics off the market and stifling innovation," Blumenthal says. "Our common-sense reforms will protect competition and reduce prices at the pharmacy."
The senators say their bill "puts an end to practices that prioritize profits for pharmaceutical companies ahead of Americans' health."
"By stopping abuses of our patent system, this legislation will pave the way for generics and biosimilars to compete with branded drugs and aggressively lower drug prices for consumers in the process," Cornyn says.
"Texans shouldn't have to pay more at the pharmacy counter because of bad actors who game the patent system and prevent cheaper generics from coming to market," he says.
The bill is cosponsored by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
Product Hopping, Patent Dance
A 2020 analysis by Matrix Global Advisors examined five branded drugs and estimated that product hopping – a tactic used by drug makers to "hop" patient onto a newer, slightly reformulated drug as a patent is about to expire – added $4.7 billion to annual U.S. healthcare expenditures.
The patent dance, under current law, places no limits on the number of patents that a branded biologics maker can claim – abusing laws enacted by Congress in 2010 intended to ease biosimilar entry.
The Cornyn-Blumenthal bill "places a reasonable limit" on the number of patents a manufacturer can contest, preventing a "patent thicket" designed to entangle and trip up the launch of cheaper alternatives.
The senators say their bill will deter brand biologics from "gaming the system", while preserving incentives in the patent system to encourage innovation.
Bad faith exploitation of drug patents has gotten renewed media attention of late as consumers struggle with the continued and relentless growth of healthcare costs.
In a lengthy report this week, The New York Times detailed schemes that drug maker AbbieVie used to "game" the patent system and delay for years the release of generic alternatives to its golden goose arthritis treatment Humira, all of which resulted in $114 billion in additional profits for the drug maker.
PBMs Cheer
The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association cheered the news that the legislation, initially filed by Cornyn in 2021, was re-filed this week.
"PCMA applauds the reintroduction of this critical bipartisan legislation aimed at ending anti-competitive practices that game the patent system, blocking more affordable generic and biosimilar options from entering the prescription drug market," PCMA President and CEO JC Scott says.
"Promoting greater competition to lower prescription drug costs for patients is fundamental to the mission of pharmacy benefit companies and we look forward to supporting the successful passage of this important measure."
PhRMA did not return HealthLeaders' requests for comment on Wednesday.
Anita Louise Jackson, MD, faces up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced later this year.
A federal jury in North Carolina has found a Raleigh physician guilty of mail fraud, conspiracy and other charges related to a $46 million scheme that re-used disposable medical devices for more than 1,400 nasal surgeries on Medicare patients, the U.S. Department of Justice says.
Anita Louise Jackson, 59, an ear, nose and throat physician who operated Greater Carolina Ear, Nose, and Throat, was convicted on all 20 counts related to the 2011-2017 scheme that fabricated bogus medical records and paid kickbacks to co-conspirators.
She was taken into custody immediately after the verdict was handed up and faces up to 20 years in prison and fines in excess of $250,000 when she is sentenced later this year.
"This doctor put profit ahead of patients, luring in Medicare patients with free "sinus spas" and risking infection to those patients by reusing the same single-use surgical devices on them again and again," Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, says in a media release. "If we allow doctors to bilk Medicare to pad their profits by performing unsupported medical procedures— each and every American taxpayer eats the cost."
The three-weeks of testimony showed that Jackson preformed 1,555 balloon sinuplasty surgeries on 919 Medicare patients using "at most" 36 new, single-use Entellus XprESS devices, which cost about $1,400 each, even though Jackson was among the nation's top-paid Medicare providers of balloon sinuplasty.
The evidence showed that Jackson lied or didn't tell patients she relied on re-used devices. Jackson admitted during cross-examination that "she had sufficient money to buy every patient a new device -- but chose not to do so," DOJ says.
Jackson billed Medicare more than $46 million dollars for the balloon sinuplasty procedures between 2014 and 2018 and banked nearly $4.8 million (since forfeited) from Medicare for these surgeries.
Jackson was also convicted on 10 counts of illegally inducing her patients to receive the sinuplasty surgery, by failing to collect the patients' co-pays. Jackson and her staff marketed the sinuplasty surgery as a free "sinus spa" to lure in prospective patients. She wrote-off or hid the up to $1,500 patient portion of the costs of the procedure on any bills sent to the patient after their visit to GCENT.
Jackson was also convicted of three counts of making false statements relating to healthcare benefits, two counts of aggravated identity theft, and three counts of mail fraud after modifying medical records to hide about $1.7 million in Medicare payments from auditors.
RxPass will cost $5 a month for an unlimted supply of ALL commonly used drugs in its generic and off-brand formulary.
Amazon Pharmacy has launched a game-changing prescription drug service RxPass that promises Prime members doorstep delivery of generic and off-brand medications for 80 common ailments, all for a flat fee of $5 a month.
“Prime members already get fast, free delivery on prescription medications, and RxPass is one more way to save with Amazon Pharmacy,” Amazon Pharmacy Vice President John Love says in a media release.
“Any customer who pays more than $10 a month for their eligible medications will see their prescription costs drop by 50% or more, plus they save time by skipping a trip to the pharmacy. We are excited to offer our customers surprisingly simple, low pricing on the eligible medications they need each month,” Love says.
To enroll in RxPass, Amazon Prime members -- who already pay $15 a month, or $139 a year for membership - can go to Amazon.com or the online mega-retailer's mobile app to create or update their Amazon Pharmacy profile. Customers will be led through a sign-up process that verifies eligibility and prescriptions.
Customers with questions during enrollment or after a prescription arrives can speak 24/7 with an Amazon pharmacists to coordinate with physicians and help with refills.
The service is available for Prime customers regardless of their health insurance status. Amazon says anyone taking two or more medications each month or managing ongoing chronic conditions such as acid reflux, high blood pressure, or anxiety will likely save money and time using RxPass.
Amazon Pharmacy already has in place a prescription savings benefit for Prime members, at no additional fee, for discounts of up to 80% for generic and 40% for off brand medications through more than 60,000 pharmacies nationwide, the company says.
Amazon Pharmacy and PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy accept most health insurance plans, and offer low, transparent pricing for customers who use insurance to pay for their prescription medications. Customers may use their HSA or FSA accounts when not paying with RxPass, the company says.
