States Help Drive National Solution to Help Patients Pay Less for Drugs

This week, President Trump signed two bills to help consumers choose lower priced drugs, the Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act and the Know the Lowest Price Act of 2018. As state health policy people, we are glad to see the work of the past several years gaining the attention of policymakers everywhere, and improving access to health care for patients.

Between 2015 and 2018, 28 states passed laws banning a practice that prevented pharmacists from telling patients whether a lower price drug was available to them at the pharmacy counter. (See map from National Conference of State Legislatures below).

The so-called “gag clauses” were a common feature of contracts between pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers until pharmacists started to speak out – usually in violation of the contract – that they were being banned from telling patients when a drug might cost less if they didn’t use their insurance. It seems simple on its face that a pharmacist, or any health care provider, should be able to give information to patients related to what the patient will have to pay for treatment.

We are proud to have been a part of state leadership on this issue in our role as state health policy advisors, and we are pleased to see this common sense approach is now the law of the land.