UMass Boston and Harvard Pilgrim Host Pharmacy Cost Panel

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Panelists Talk Value, Need to Hold Businesses Accountable as Cost and Number of Medications IncreaseWhat constitutes value when it comes to prescription drugs was a recurring theme at a panel Tuesday morning sponsored by UMass Boston’s Set Sail for Success Program and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

“When people ask me, ‘Why, Eric, are drug prices going up so much?’ I usually say, ‘Because they can,’” Eric H. Schultz, president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, told a crowd of more than 100 students and health care industry leaders at the UMass Club. “Let’s hold businesses accountable. Tell me why you just increased your price 22 percent in one year when you’ve been producing this drug for well over eight years and the cost of producing the drug and what goes into it did not go up 22 percent.”

Schultz says he’d like to see the process for approving new drugs to be sped up, the process for approving generics to be changed, and a panel of leading experts, including researchers and clinicians, to develop a cost-effectiveness score for new drugs. 

“It is not easy, because somebody has to say who is getting value, and how much value is. It’s much harder to do politically than one might suspect,” Schultz said.

Panelist Dr. Steven D. Pearson, founder and president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review talked about a proposal in New York State, where if a drug company’s price goes above a value-based price ceiling, it will trigger a rebate back to the state.

Associate Professor of Nursing Janice Foust told moderator Shirley Leung of The Boston Globe that it’s not just the cost of a single drug that’s the issue; Foust has worked with some people who have up to 29 medications.

“I’ve made home visits where the medications are in the ...

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