Nur490 Reflection # 4

Prescription Drug STAR Act

The prescription Drug STAR Act or Prescription Drug Sunshine, Transparency, Accountability, and Reporting Act was introduced in the house on 4th September 2019 by Rep. Neal, Richard E. The Bill was passed unanimously by the House Ways & Means committee. It identifies the need for drug manufactures to give particular data concerning discounts, prices, and samples product of drugs in question. Particularly, the Act seeks that the Department of Health and Human Services to yearly establish if there are improvements in prices of particular level for drugs for outpatient under the program of Medicare coverage, but not including less-costly drugs.

The manufacturers have to explain to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for prices of drugs that heightened cumulatively by $10,000 or at least 10 percent within a year. Explanation of drug prices that improved by $25,000 or by at least 25% within 3- year period or at least $26,000 yearly, per individual, if under Medicare over the year in question. The manufacture should elaborate on the duty of contributing influences to the prices and other data, which is relevant such as marketing costs and the cost of manufacturing (Barlas, 2019). Moreover, manufacturers of drugs must offer HHS with data aggregates related to drug's product sample, biologic, devices, and drug supplies provided to physicians, health facilities, or other practitioners in the medical field over the prior calendar year from 2023.

The bill also establishes that HHS should publicly announce all the information related to price concessions, rebates, and drug discounts given annually to the Department of Health and Human Services by group health plans (Miller, 2020). Particular sales information for available drugs under Medicare must be provided to HHS by the manufacturers for which the manufacturers lack to be in place for agreement, which is the rebate. The bill also seeks the HHS to report and study trends in inpatient hospitals' costs.

On 9Appril, 2019, the House Committee on Way and Means unanimously voted to pass the Prescription Drug STAR Act, which is bipartisan to address vital health issues connected to public reporting and transparency of information to boost the accountability. And make sure that purchasers, clients, taxpayers, and payers have improved understanding of the drug market that has been opaque for a while (Barlas, 2019). The responsible committee members ignored their ideological difference to vote and pass the bipartisan Prescription Drug STAR Act, which is the starting point for finding solutions for increased drug prescription costs affecting customers in Texas, Massachusetts, and other states in the country. This bill will introduce sanity across the healthcare chain of supply from the manufactures of pharmaceutical to pharmacy profit managers to minimize costs incurred by families.

However, there is a lot of work to be done on this bill, and the supporters should keep the spirit and continue working to deal with other pressing and pricing health care concerns for the people of the US. The Prescription Drug Sunshine, Transparency, Accountability, and Reporting Act enjoy support from many people and national organizations like the American Hospital Association, American Association of Retired People (AARP), Industry Committee of ERISA, Federation of American Hospitals and Pharmacists. The bill's first unanimous vote on the house showed a promising start demonstrating that it is on its way to being passed by Congress.

Many leaders from both main parties indicate big support for the bill, citing its role in addressing the continued problem of high drug prescription prices. Leaders feel that the provision requiring manufacturers increasing prices for drugs by either $10,000 or 10% yearly or increasing the prices by $25,000 or 25% over three years to elaborate reasons behind the increase. Other members are seen to have more interest in the second provision, which requires an elaboration of new drugs launched with more than $26,000 as a price that equals the Medicare beneficiary average income. Donald Trump, the US president, has expressed full support of the bill alongside other respected leaders.

However, some leaders like Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) criticize the bill, terming it as less effective in the efforts to address pricing concerns in drug prescription. Doggett said that nothing requires the manufacturing organization to cite any specific reasons coming from the bill leading to increased drug prices. He argued that the rival bill proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden is much better and specific about what should be disclosed by the manufacturing companies. I think the bill is a good start towards controlling the drug prescription prices as it seeks to access full disclosure and thorough analysis of all the possible factors that may contribute to pricing. But I think more restrictions on the pricing aspect may have an impact on prescription quality.

Suppose the bill passes to become the law. In that case, the healthcare system will become more affordable, and hospitals will report increased visits as may people would be able to cater to the reduced medication costs (McCoy, 2018). Nurses will be able to offer superior care without considering and advising patients on the inferior treatment options due to high care costs, thus enhancing the patient experience and eventually increasing the quality of care.

Nurses can express their support for the bill and assist in its passage through writing a convincing communication to influential Congress members, especially those who have been most vocal about healthcare matters, to lobby other members of the house to pass support and vote for the bill. Nurses can also use nurse leaders at national levels to express their opinion about the bill. Board meetings can also be useful as senior people are likely to present who, upon being convinced, may pass the message about the bill. Social media can also be used to express an opinion about the bill.

Reference

Barlas, S. (2019). A Drug Pricing “Transparency” Bill With Strong Bipartisan Support But Would It Accomplish Much?. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 44(6), 323.

McCoy, M. S. (2018). Industry support of patient advocacy organizations: the case for an extension of the sunshine act provisions of the affordable care act. American journal of public health, 108(8), 1026-1030.

Miller, J. (2020). How full disclosure of clinical trial data will benefit the pharmaceutical industry. Evaluation, 14(47), 19.