As prescription medication costs rise across the country, many states have introduced legislation to create prescription drug affordability boards to help regulate prices, including Rhode Island.
AARP officials gave an update on the progress of these boards during a press conference Wednesday, where they said 11 states have prescription drug review boards in place. Four of those states have the ability to establish upper-payment limits, a limit on what purchasers can pay for certain drugs in the state separate from the manufacturer’s list price — and the price other states may set.
State Senator Alana DiMario sponsored a bill that would create a drug cost review commission in Rhode Island, but envisions the legislation as part of the state’s larger health care package to tackle challenges in the industry.
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“The [drug affordability board] model seemed to us like a good way to start to look at costs that drugs bring to our health care system,” said DiMario, a North Kingstown Democrat.
If passed by the state Senate, the legislation would create a drug cost review commission that would review costs from drug manufacturers and decide whether to impose more affordable prices. The bill was held for further study after a hearing Tuesday afternoon.
DiMario said legislators want to be mindful of how the affordability board’s decisions would impact Rhode Islanders who have expressed concerns that upper-payment limits would keep them from purchasing necessary medication. If the state imposes a maximum price limit and a manufacturer stops selling to the state, people may lose access to necessary medicine, she said.
“The last thing we want to do is impede access for consumers to specific drugs they need,” she said.
By broadening the scope of the bill to look at other legislative changes that could bring drug prices down besides imposing upper-payment limits, DiMario said Rhode Island can be an example to other states.
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“There can be reasonable limits that still allow pharmaceutical companies to be profitable, but makes medication more affordable and accessible,” she said.
The proposed legislation mandates greater transparency from drug manufacturers. For example, it would require manufacturers to notify the commission if it plans to increase the cost of a medication by more than 10 percent or by more than $10,000 in one year. The notification must come at least 30 days before the planned increase and explain why the change has been applied, according to the bill.
While AARP officials emphasized the view that upper-payment limits are important for affordability boards to enforce, DiMario maintains that Rhode Island legislators are more eager to “attack high prescription drug prices” in other ways.
Ultimately, DiMario said, the legislation seeks to look at “why the system is so complicated and how we can make it less complicated and less costly.”
Two-thirds of Americans responded to an AARP survey that they are somewhat concerned about being able to afford medications for themselves or someone in their families.
“For years, AARP has been advocating at the state level for the passage of these prescription drug affordability boards,” Meghan O’Reilly, vice president of AARP Government Affairs, Health and Family, said at Wednesday’s conference. “This makes medicines more affordable for consumers and helps to relieve some of the pressure on state health care budgets as well.”
Prescription drug affordability boards are not the same across all states, said Jonathan Bartholomew, director of AARP Government Affairs. Some boards only have power to offer recommendations to state governments, while others can implement upper-payment limits.
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DiMario said if the bill passes, she hopes the Rhode Island board will encourage transparency from drug manufacturers above all, and take information from other states’ boards to “amplify the power of cooperative purchasing.” If standard prices are set for prescription drugs between states, consequences of varying prices can be avoided, she said.
AARP officials said Colorado is the state furthest along in making changes through an affordability board, but that others should be following soon.
“It is alive and there will probably be more work on it,” Bartholomew said of the Rhode Island bill. “It is moving along in the process.”
Alexa Coultoff can be reached at alexa.coultoff@globe.com. Follow her @alexacoultoff.