HB 1559

Abstract

Prescription drug price transparency; penalties.Requires pharmaceutical drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefits managers, andhealth carriers to submit reports containing certain information concerningprescription drug costs to the Commissioner of the Bureau of Insurance (theCommissioner). The measure requires pharmaceutical drug manufacturers' reportsto include information on the current wholesale acquisition cost informationfor FDA-approved drugs sold in or into the Commonwealth by the pharmaceuticaldrug manufacturer. The bill also requires such manufacturers to submit a reportfor drugs with a wholesale acquisition cost of at least $50 for a 30-day supplywhen their wholesale acquisition cost increases by 25 percent or more over thepreceding three calendar years or 10 percent or more over the precedingcalendar year. The measure requires pharmacy benefits managers to report dataon the aggregated rebates, fees, price protection payments, and any otherpayments collected from pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and the aggregateddollar amount of rebates, fees, price protection payments, and any otherpayments collected from pharmaceutical drug manufacturers that were healthbenefit plan issuers or enrollees at the point of sale of a prescription drug.The measure requires health carriers to report the names of the 25 mostfrequently prescribed drugs across all plans, percent increase in annual netspending for drugs across all plans, percent increase in premiums attributableto drugs across all plans, percentage of specialty drugs with utilizationmanagement requirements across all plans, and premium reductions that wereattributable to specialty drug utilization management. The measure requires theCommissioner to publish the aggregated data from these reports on a website.The measure authorizes the State Corporation Commission (the Commission) to (i)call public hearings and to subpoena prescription drug manufacturers, pharmacybenefits managers, and health carriers to explain their reports; (ii) conductaudits of data submitted to it; (iii) require these entities to submit acorrective action plan to correct deficiencies in reporting; and (iv) imposepenalties of $30,000 per day on any prescription drug manufacturer, pharmacybenefits manager, or health carrier that fails to make a good faith effort tosubmit a required report within two weeks after receiving written notice fromthe Commission.