WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today applauded the introduction of legislation that would prevent drug companies from price-gouging Medicaid, the national health care program for the poor.
Incoming chairman of the powerful U.S. Senate Finance Committee Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and its ranking minority member U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) jointly sponsored the "Right Rebate Act of 2018” which would give authority to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) to fine drug companies that willfully misclassify products in Medicaid and would allow HHS to recover rebate payments.
The bill is in part a reaction to the drug company Mylan misclassifying its EpiPen as a generic drug for purposes of Medicaid payments even though the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) warned them to stop (background on bill). The HHS inspector general has uncovered that 885 drugs were similarly misclassified, costing the government billions of dollars in unpaid rebates. The new legislation will give HHS the authority to compel drug companies to correct these deliberate misclassifications.
"We're very encouraged that Senators Grassley and Wyden, in a welcome spirit of bipartisanship, are tackling the rapacious record of the drug industry. With nearly forty percent of people living with HIV in the US depending on Medicaid to keep them in care, this bill will help stop rich drug companies from ripping off the poor," said AHF's President Michael Weinstein.
About AIDS Healthcare Foundation
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more than one million individuals in 42 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare.
