Trent Lott: “I again commend Chairman Grassley for the leadership role he has taken in crafting much needed reductions in the…”

“I again commend Chairman Grassley for the leadership role he has taken in crafting much needed reductions in the mandatory spending programs that fall under his jurisdiction as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Regarding the changes to the Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement formula, we both share a strong commitment to ensuring that the Federal dollar is spent in a wise and proper manner while maintaining patient access to their medicines. I do want to take this opportunity to clarify specifically how bona fide services fees, which are negotiated between a manufacturer and pharmaceutical distributor, should be treated under the new Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement metric. Manufacturers pay bona fide service fees for specific services provided by the distributor. Service fees are a relatively new business model to the pharmaceutical distribution industry and how they should be treated under Federal reimbursement programs first came into question as the new Average Sales Price, ASP, metric under the Medicare Modernization Act was being implemented.…”