ACP recommends policies to curb prescription drug costs
Transparency in pricing, cost, and comparative value and elimination of restrictions on using quality-adjusted life-years in comparative effectiveness research are 2 of the recommendations.
ACP published a position paper this week calling for changes that could slow the rising cost of prescription drugs.
“Stemming the Escalating Cost of Prescription Drugs” offers a series of recommendations, including:
- transparency in the pricing, cost, and comparative value of all pharmaceutical products;
- elimination of restrictions on using quality-adjusted life-years in comparative effectiveness research;
- use of novel approaches, including allowing price negotiation by Medicare and other publicly funded health programs;
- use of approaches that encourage value-based decision making;
- patient cost-sharing that does not impose a substantial economic barrier to patients; and
- policies on biosimilar drugs that limit patient confusion between originator and biosimilar products.
The full position paper was published online March 29 by Annals of Internal Medicine.