“Governor Baker’s proposal to force certain drug manufacturers to pay supplemental rebates on incredibly effective drugs that MassHealth deems too expensive sends a message across the industry that government is going to punish success and that only it can be the final arbiter of drug pricing. MassHealth is already paying significantly less for the same drugs than private insurers. It’s unclear to me why the Governor is focusing his MassHealth cost cutting efforts here when there are simpler reforms available like eliminating spread pricing by PBMs in MassHealth – a practice that other state Medicaid programs have successfully eliminated after discovering it cost them hundreds of millions of dollars a year.”
– Robert K. Coughlin, President and CEO of MassBio