Sen. Ron Wyden shakes hands with Philomath Pharmacy staff member Jessica Benson on Wednesday Also on hand for Wednesday's discussion of prescription drug prices, from left, are co-owner Seth Phan, Rick Lawrence and Kathie Davis.
Andy Cripe Mid-Valley Media
Sen. Ron Wyden chats with Seth Phan, right, co-owner of the Philomath Pharmacy, and Jessica Benson, left, on Wednesday afternoon. Wyden stopped at the pharmacy to talk about solutions to the high cost of prescription drugs.
Here is a look at highlights of the prescription drug bill proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa. The bill emerged from the Senate Finance Committee on a 19-9 vote on July 25:
Medicare Part D
• Protects beneficiaries with high costs through an on out-of-pocket spending cap.
• Improves incentives to increase negotiation between prescription drug plans and manufacturers.
• Increases transparency into pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) practices and manufacturer drug pricing decisions;
Medicaid
• Increases transparency and make manufacturers more accountable to taxpayers;
• Applies pressure on manufacturers to lower list prices and report more accurate calculations of their rebate obligations; and
• Prevents spread pricing and gaming in the Medicaid program by PBMs to ensure that beneficiaries, states and the federal government are getting the best deal possible.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden will kick off his 2020 town hall schedule in early January with a Corvallis forum on the calendar.
Sen. Ron Wyden shakes hands with Philomath Pharmacy staff member Jessica Benson on Wednesday Also on hand for Wednesday's discussion of prescription drug prices, from left, are co-owner Seth Phan, Rick Lawrence and Kathie Davis.
Sen. Ron Wyden chats with Seth Phan, right, co-owner of the Philomath Pharmacy, and Jessica Benson, left, on Wednesday afternoon. Wyden stopped at the pharmacy to talk about solutions to the high cost of prescription drugs.
