In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, physician, attorney and expert with the Federalist Society Regulatory Transparency Project FDA & Health Roger D. Klein wants to price drugs according to what they do.
Dr. Klein writes “Under the current payment structure, insurers resort to heavy-handed bureaucratic measures to restrict the use of some drugs….but these crude tactics don’t consider the relative values of drugs when administered for different diseases. Pricing drugs based on their uses would reduce the need for obtrusive management techniques.”
Klein wants rebates or deep discounts given to medications that serve a dual purpose.
"This is about giving consumers, insurers and society better access to beneficial medicine and greater value for the money that we spend on them," said Klein. "There are currently legal and regulatory barriers that make it very difficult for insurance companies and drug companies to negotiate different prices for the medications based on the reasons for which they're given."
KTRH's Dr. Joe Galati said the cost of prescription drugs is out of control and a big driver in the overall cost of healthcare.
There are numerous strategies to try and reign in the cost and getting creative from a financial standpoint.
"It's going to be an unbelievable challenge to put this into play," said Galati. "Who is going to judge whether a particular medicine applied to a certain disease is efficacious versus another drug that works better?"