[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 183 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 183

  To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to prepare and 
     publish annually a consumer guide to prescription drug prices.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 7, 1997

   Mr. Hastings of Florida introduced the following bill; which was 
                 referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 



  To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to prepare and 
     publish annually a consumer guide to prescription drug prices.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Prescription Drug Consumer 
Information Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. PREPARATION OF CONSUMER GUIDE.

    The Secretary of Health and Human Services (in this Act referred to 
as the ``Secretary'') shall prepare and publish in accordance with this 
Act a consumer guide to prescription drug prices (in this Act referred 
to as the ``consumer guide'').

SEC. 3. INFORMATION TO BE CONTAINED IN CONSUMER GUIDE.

    The consumer guide shall contain--
            (1) a list of the prices of all prescription drugs in an 
        easy-to-understand format organized by therapeutic category; 
        and
            (2) such other related information as the Secretary 
        determines will assist--
                    (A) consumers in reducing expenses for prescription 
                drugs; and
                    (B) health care providers in determining the cost-
                effectiveness of prescription drugs as compared to 
                other prescription drugs and to other therapies.

SEC. 4. PUBLICATION.

    The Secretary shall publish the first consumer guide within 2 years 
after the date of the enactment of this Act and shall publish an 
updated version of the consumer guide annually thereafter. In addition, 
the Secretary may publish periodically bulletins which describe changes 
in the prices of prescription drugs between the dates of the annual 
publication of the consumer guide.

SEC. 5. AVAILABILITY OF CONSUMER GUIDE.

    The Secretary shall--
            (1) provide the consumer guide to public libraries;
            (2) provide for the dissemination of the consumer guide 
        widely to consumers of prescription drugs and health care 
        providers;
            (3) encourage organizations representing senior citizens, 
        health care consumers, and health care professionals to make 
        the consumer guide available to the members of those 
        organizations; and
            (4) make the consumer guide available through a computer 
        network which is easily accessible to the general public, as 
        well as in print.

SEC. 6. FEES FOR CONSUMER GUIDE.

    (a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), the 
Secretary shall charge a reasonable fee for providing the consumer 
guide which may not exceed an amount reasonably related to the costs of 
publishing and distributing the consumer guide.
    (b) Exception.--The Secretary shall not charge a fee for providing 
the consumer guide to public libraries.
    (c) Fees Collected.--Fees collected in exchange for providing the 
consumer guide shall be available to the Secretary to cover the costs 
of publishing and distributing the consumer guide.
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