OPINION -- In his article, PhRMA Likely to Win Support for Watering Down Prior Authorization of New Drugs, reporter Chris Gray failed to report the potential impact HB 2638 would have on Medicaid/OHA patients.
A diverse group of organizations serving patients with chronic health conditions, expressed our opposition to the bill. Mr. Gray, addressed the role of pharmaceutical industry but curiously failed to mention the impact the bill would have on patients, despite our testimony and appearance before the Senate Health Care Committee. Patients and organizations representing them oppose this bill because of the impediments to care it would create. The organizations standing with us include:
- The National Patient Advocacy Foundation
- One in Four Chronic Health
- Cascade AIDS Project
- Caring Ambassadors Program
- Molly’s Fund Fighting Lupus
- The Hemophilia Foundation of Oregon
- Central Drugs Pharmacy
We oppose HB 2638 because it would restrict the ability of patients to access new life sustaining and lifesaving drugs when they enter the marketplace for six months. For many patients drugs “fail” or cease to be effective over time and new drugs are the only option to maintain health, or life. Oregon’s Medicaid program has the option to place restrictions such as prior authorizations and step therapy on drugs, but once a drug is FDA and CMS approved, the state must make it available as a condition of federal law.
The letter submitted to the Committee restating our objections to the bill, with the dash -4 amendment and previous amendments can be accessed on the Oregon Legislative Information Service here.
This bill, is from our perspective, a bad bill because it would have placed unacceptable restrictions on patient access to medications. These restrictions included in the dash -2, -3 and -4 amendments offered by legislative counsel potentially would have eliminated the carve out protections for mental health drugs, and refills of HIV, cancer and immune therapy drugs. The bill, as drafted, is in violation of federal law under the Affordable Care Act. We continue to support the dash -1 amendment of the bill, a concept initially raised by Chair Greenlick when the bill was before the House Health Committee.
We will continue to work on behalf of patients living with chronic health conditions. We believe that a patient’s outcome should be determined by the care they receive, not who pays for their insurance.
