It’s Labor Day weekend, so you’re probably grilling and thinking about how Delaware outlawed gag clauses. Also, the Midterms are quickly becoming a referendum on drug prices.
1. Hattie’s Story
Hattie Saltzman, who lives with type 1 diabetes, grew tired of having to skip doses of insulin and splitting prescriptions with her dad for her life-sustaining medications. So she took a stand on national TV. — (TODAY)
2. Prices to be included on drug ads — but which prices?
It’s a little confusing. — (Forbes)
3. Gagged no more
Delaware is the latest state to make sure pharmacists can tell patients when it’s cheaper to pay cash to buy prescriptions than use insurance. A new law eliminates so-called “gag clauses,” the shady provisions written into pharmacy contracts by PBMs that forbid pharmacists from sharing this info. — (Delaware State News)
4. What’s the deal with rebates?
Patients For Affordable Drugs shared drug pricing principles on a proposed end to rebates in Medicare Part D in a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar. — (P4AD)
5. Midterms: a referendum on drug prices for seniors
Seniors and all Americans hurt and angered by rising prescription drug prices are primed to vote on the issue in the Midterms. Here are four questions they should be asking candidates. — (AARP)
BONUS shot — a PhRMA setback:
Political influence-peddler PhRMA is trying to knock down a monumental drug pricing transparency law in California, but a federal judge has tossed it out on procedural grounds — for now. Multiple sclerosis patient Victoria Stuessel played a role in the passage of the measure. — (NYT)