Articles Tagged: Prescription drug pricing

Iowa’s largest health insurer says the Insurance Division’s order to implement Senate File 383 would unfairly raise drug costs and contradict a federal court ruling blocking key provisions of the law.

At a Cedar Rapids stop, Zach Wahls pitched his U.S. Senate run as a fight to “fix the broken economy by cleaning up corruption.” From child care costs to rent hikes, drug prices and gun safety, he linked pocketbook struggles to special-interest influence — and pledged to take no corporate PAC money.

Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on a wide range of oversight and policy issues during a hearing Thursday.

SafeNetRx CEO Jon Rosmann confirmed the Nebraska-Iowa partnership has been operational since July 1.

A federal judge granted a 2-week pause while a lawsuit is considered over a new state law that addresses pharmacy benefit managers, rural pharmacies and prescription drug costs

The groups claim the new state law would increase businesses’ health care costs by millions of dollars, and that it violates existing federal law and businesses’ free speech

Pharmacy benefit managers — or PBMs — will face new restrictions designed to constrain prescription drug costs and protect rural pharmacies under legislation signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Health care organizations want Gov. Kim Reynolds to sign a recently-passed PBM bill into law, saying it will protect pharmacies; business groups want her to veto it, saying it will raise health care costs.

While supporters say it will help struggling rural pharmacies, opponents say it drives up costs for Iowans by tens of millions a year.

The discounts, agreed to after months of negotiations with drug manufacturers, range between 38% and 79% on the medication's list price, which is the cost of medication before discounts or rebates are applied — not the price people actually pay for prescriptions.

The bill, which advanced out of a Senate subcommittee on Monday, would apply to people on state-regulated health insurance plans, including people with private health insurance and state-provided Medicaid. Uninsured Iowans would not be covered by the bill.

Iowa House lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday aimed at reducing prescription drug costs for Iowans by strengthening some requirements for pharmacy benefit managers.

Pharmacies across Iowa have closed at an alarming rate over the past decade-plus, partly because insurance payouts don't cover drug costs. Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and colleagues this week introduced a proposal that would tackle practices used by pharmacy benefit managers that drive up costs for prescription medications.

That administration published state-level data after announcing 10 prescription drugs whose costs it plans to negotiate for Medicare patients under a new federal law

The popular diabetes treatment Jardiance and the blood thinner Eliquis are among the first drugs that will be targeted for price negotiations in effort to cut Medicare costs.