The AHA today voiced support for the Recovering Excessive Funds for Unused and Needless Drugs Act (S. 551), legislation that would incentivize manufacturers to align package sizes with common dosage amounts.
 
“Currently, many common medications are packaged in sizes that do not align with the most common dosages,” AHA noted in a letter of support for the bill, sponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio. “As a result, providers frequently are forced to discard the potentially tainted excess content of the package, resulting in expensive and unnecessary waste. For example, one study found that packaging size alone results in $3 billion of wasted cancer drugs each year.
 
“Your legislation would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide an estimate of the cost associated with discarded Medicare Part B medications and require a rebate to the Medicare Trust Fund for 90 percent of the recorded amount. In addition, Medicare beneficiaries would receive a reimbursement for their 20 percent coinsurance for the cost of the discarded drugs. This proposal would incentivize manufacturers to align package sizes with common dosage amounts, ultimately reducing waste and spending for hospitals and health systems, the federal government and Medicare beneficiaries.”

Related News Articles

Headline
The House Energy and Commerce Committee March 12 passed AHA-supported  legislation to reauthorize through 2029 the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider…
Headline
The Senate voted 75-22 on March 8 to pass and send to the president for his signature a package of six appropriations bills funding certain federal agencies…
Headline
Jill Howard, R.N., senior consultant, Sheppard Pratt Solutions, is the 2024 chair of AHA’s Committee on Behavioral Health. Zelia Baugh, executive vice…
Headline
The House March 5 voted 382-12 to pass the AHA-supported Preventing Maternal Deaths Reauthorization Act (H.R. 3838), bipartisan legislation that would…
Headline
The House Ways and Means Committee March 6 voted 26-17 to advance as amended to the full House the Protecting America’s Seniors’ Access to Care Act (H.R. 7513…
Headline
The House March 6 voted 339-85 to pass a package of six appropriations bills that would fund certain federal agencies through fiscal year 2024 and contains…