Mike Collins: “It has always been about that. I have come to this well and come to this floor on many occasions to talk about it. And…”

“It has always been about that. I have come to this well and come to this floor on many occasions to talk about it. And when you look at the impacts they are having on DIR fees and these clawback fees that are coming back after the fact and not at the time of when there is no really need or cause for it, according to the Community Oncology Alliance, pharmacists lose $58,000 per practice, on average, to DIR fees each year. You know, this makes it completely-- I mean, think about that. Mr. Speaker, if you had a business in which you had $58,000 just sucked away for no apparent reason, I mean, this is--we wonder why this is happening, and we wonder why people can't get their drugs. We wonder why people wonder why can't I get this drug? Why do I have to wait to get approval here? It is this area right here--DIR fees. And I do applaud my friend, Mr. Griffith from Virginia, who has introduced this bill, and I am a proud cosponsor with him on this. You know, it is amazing today to see when patients--when this happens in Medicare part D, the beneficiaries are going through this process, and really what happens, it increases the problem called the doughnut hole, and they are hitting that doughnut hole sooner, forcing them to pay out of pocket for their drugs. And when patients pass through the doughnut hole into catastrophic coverage, CMS takes on most of the cost of burden-sharing. Now, here is where it gets important, Mr. Speaker.…”