On December 7, 2020, the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH) issued this statement regarding the announcement that President-elect Biden will nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“There’s a limit to what transparency can do,” said Shawn Gremminger, health policy director at the Pacific Business Group on Health, which represents large self-insured employers. “That’s why we’re increasingly comfortable with policies that get at the underlying prices of drugs.” As an example, he cited the Trump administration’s proposal to tie what Medicare pays for drugs to lower prices in other countries.
The Employers’ Prescription for Affordable Drugs said Medicare should determine fair prices for COVID-19 drugs and vaccines and pointed to Gilead’s remdesivir as an example of an overpriced drug. The FDA approved remdesivir as a COVID-19 treatment in October. The drug costs private health plans more than $3,00 per treatment course, Bloomberg reported.
“There is a significant difference in what employers are prepared to support,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, president of the Pacific Business Group on Health, a consortium of large companies including Boeing, Safeway, Walmart and Wells Fargo.
To address rising prices of private health insurance, employers are discussing several strategies, including narrow networks and a decreased reliance on intermediaries, said Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of the Pacific Business Group on Health.
“It just underscores that without antitrust action, these behaviors aren’t changing,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, CEO of the Pacific Business Group […]
“COVID has exposed the serious problems with our current healthcare system,” Elizabeth Mitchell, chief executive officer of the Pacific Business […]
“If you come away with anything today, it’s that there is a collective readiness on the part of employers to […]
“Rising health care costs continue to burden our businesses and employees, and they are crowding out jobs, wages, and in […]
Lauren Vela, senior director of member value at the coalition, said it all comes down to who gains in the […]