WASHINGTON — Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) Ppresident and CEO JC Scott issued the following statement on Congress’ agreement on drug pricing language for the budget bill:

JC Scott

“We appreciate congressional negotiators’ focus on prescription drug prices and applaud inclusion of repeal of the rebate rule, a rule which threatens to dramatically increase premiums for Medicare beneficiaries and costs to taxpayers.

At the same time, we are concerned that this important progress could be simultaneously blunted by the inclusion of policies that would empower drug manufacturers to discount less deeply and result in higher costs for patients, simply for the purpose of giving political cover to the pharma industry.

We look forward to working with Congress to find the right mix of policies that achieve both lower costs and lower premiums for patients.”