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Bridgette Blight
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: News
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The ACHA, an organization that advocates for college and university health, has been pushing for new legislation that reinstates the nominal pricing policy to college health centers and community health centers. Nominal pricing is when drug manufacturers provide drugs at a discount of 90 percent or more. The discounts were mostly on contraception.
Before the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 was passed, pharmaceutical companies could provide nominal pricing of prescription drugs to colleges and community health centers. These companies were able to provide discounted medicine without providing rebates to states in which Medicaid reimbursed the price of the medication, according to a document by the ACHA.
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigated the rebate program in response to concerns that it was being abused. This led to revised exemptions from rebates. The revised list did not include college health centers or approximately half of the community health centers in Rhode Island, Henderson said.
A bill that would provide nominal pricing for community health centers and college health centers is going through Congress. The House bill, sponsored by Rep. John Crowley, D-N.Y., was introduced on Nov. 1. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, sponsored a similar Senate bill, introduced on Nov. 13.
Three out of the four congressmen from Rhode Island have signed on as co-sponsors of the bills. Democratic Sen. Jack Reed has yet to co-sponsor the Senate bill.
Before the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 was passed, pharmaceutical companies could provide nominal pricing of prescription drugs to colleges and community health centers. These companies were able to provide discounted medicine without providing rebates to states in which Medicaid reimbursed the price of the medication, according to a document by the ACHA.
The U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigated the rebate program in response to concerns that it was being abused. This led to revised exemptions from rebates. The revised list did not include college health centers or approximately half of the community health centers in Rhode Island, Henderson said.
A bill that would provide nominal pricing for community health centers and college health centers is going through Congress. The House bill, sponsored by Rep. John Crowley, D-N.Y., was introduced on Nov. 1. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, sponsored a similar Senate bill, introduced on Nov. 13.
Three out of the four congressmen from Rhode Island have signed on as co-sponsors of the bills. Democratic Sen. Jack Reed has yet to co-sponsor the Senate bill.
