Senate Committee Approves Bill Promoting Drug Price Transparency

Pharmacists would be allowed to tell a patient if their drug is cheaper when they buy it without insurance under a bill banning pharmacy gag clauses approved July 25 by a Senate committee.

Right now, most pharmacists can’t legally tell customers whether their medication is cheaper without insurance unless the person directly asks under gag clauses in contracts that insurance plans and their pharmacy benefit managers enter into with pharmacies. That’s “so counterintuitive that very few consumers are going to pose that question to their pharmacist,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee ...