PCMA Statement on 21st Century Cures

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Pharmaceutical Care Management Association

May 21, 2015, 02:46 ET

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) issued the following statement regarding the Medicare Part D offsets included in the Energy & Commerce Committee's 21st Century Cures initiative:

"If the 21st Century Cures initiative can only be advanced by cutting billions from America's premier health program – Medicare – then its costs outweigh any potential benefits it may yield down the road.

"Leveraging payments to Part D plans to fund this legislation ironically could have the unintended consequence of making it harder for beneficiaries to access the very medicines that 21st Century Cures seeks to advance.

"We urge policymakers to explore different offsets that don't pose new risks to other parts of the health care delivery system."

PCMA represents the nation's pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which improve affordability and quality of care through the use of electronic prescribing (e-prescribing), generic alternatives, mail-service pharmacies, and other innovative tools for 215 million Americans.

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SOURCE Pharmaceutical Care Management Association