Chuck Grassley: “There is a bad practice in pharmaceutical pricing called spread pricing. Spread pricing has historically siphoned money…”

“There is a bad practice in pharmaceutical pricing called spread pricing. Spread pricing has historically siphoned money from the State Medicaid Programs and given it to pharmacy benefit managers or what we call PBMs. Drug payments and Medicaid should focus on the beneficiary, not the PBMs. The bipartisan prescription drug legislation I introduced this month with Senator Wyden bans spread pricing. This will refocus the system on paying for costs associated with prescribing a drug instead of gaming the system to reap a profit at the expense of the taxpayers. Medicaid funding should go to patients, not to the pockets of healthcare middlemen. I yield the floor. ____________________”