CVS applauds President Trump’s campaign to slash drug prices

5/11/2018
President Donald Trump has the support of CVS Health when it comes to slashing drug prices.

On Friday, President Trump proposed an aggressive campaign to cut prescription drug prices for patients — a campaign promise he had yet to address until now. Under the new plan, called American Patients First, rules preventing government health programs from securing deeper discounts on drug prices would be lifted. In addition, the United States would push other developed countries with tighter price controls to pay more for medicines, and new incentives would induce drugmakers to lower list prices and prevent them from gaming the system to extend their monopolies, according to Bloomberg.

CVS is bullish on the plan, which dovetails within its own efforts to lower the cost of drugs for its customers.

“At CVS Health, we see every day the impact rising drug costs have on our patients. That's why we have developed and supported innovative solutions to lower health care costs, and we look forward to partnering with leaders to continue to do so. We commend the Trump Administration's focus on reducing the cost of prescription drugs, and we agree more can and needs to be done,” according to the company.

The company also does not expect policy solutions that lower drug prices for consumers and reduce out-of-pocket costs to have a negative impact on profitability, according to the CVS.

The drugstore retailer added that it is already well-positioned to implement many of the key proposals outlined by President Trump’s administration. For example, CVS provides universal availability of rebates at the point-of-sale as to help customers save on out-of-pocket costs.

The pharmacy retailer also provides patients with information on what they will pay out-of-pocket under their insurance plan, and also suggests less expensive therapeutic alternatives. By sharing this information through its e-prescribing system, CVS can evaluate individual prescription savings opportunities in real-time, saving patients up to $75 per prescription, according to the company.

“We believe this approach leads to greater transparency in drug prices, and unquestionably demonstrates the true cause of rising drug costs for consumers: high list prices set by pharmaceutical manufacturers,” CVS added.
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