Bill would allow prescription coupons, rebates beyond 2017
Coupons and rebates for brand-name prescriptions offered by drug makers would remain legal in Massachusetts beyond 2017 under a bill House lawmakers are pushing toward passage.
Prior to 2012, Massachusetts was the only state that did not allow consumers to use coupons and rebates for prescriptions.
Two years ago, lawmakers reached a compromise to allow coupons in part by inserting a five-year sunset clause. House lawmakers on Thursday gave initial approval to a bill that eliminates the expiration of using coupons. A House Ways and Means amendment to the bill, which deals with pharmacy audits, dropped the sunset clause for coupons.
The bill has yet to emerge in the Senate with three weeks remaining before the 2013-2014 session ends.
Manufacturers have offered temporary discounts for their drugs in other states for years, but Massachusetts residents could not take advantage of the savings.
Opponents of drug coupons argue that their use drives up health care costs by encouraging people to request pricey brand-name medications. Others who back the discounts say they help people afford expensive prescriptions.
A coalition of organizations, which included MassPIRG, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, unsuccessfully tried to prevent drug coupons in Massachusetts.
Deidre Cummings, legislative director for MassPIRG, said Thursday that pharmaceutical companies use coupons to lure consumers to newer, more expensive drugs. Consumers then put pressure on their doctors to prescribe them.
"Those coupons drive consumer demand. Insurance companies have a hard time dealing with it; physicians have a hard time dealing with it," Cummings said.
Eric Linzer, senior vice president at the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, said health insurers are seeing significant increases in the amounts pharmaceuticals charge for brand-name and generic drugs.
"There needs to be greater scrutiny of factors driving those price increases," Linzer said.
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