The Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) released its June 2018 Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP.
The report includes recommended statutory changes that would allow state Medicaid programs to pay the lowest price for certain drugs, as well as clarifications related to protecting the privacy of patients with substance use disorders. MACPAC’s recommendations seek to close a loophole in the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program that allows a manufacturer to sell its authorized generic at a low price to a corporate subsidiary, reducing the rebate obligation for its brand drug. In addition, MACPAC recommends giving the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services clear authority to impose intermediate financial sanctions on manufacturers that misclassify a brand drug as a generic to lower their rebate payments.
