[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2858 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2858

 To amend part D of title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require 
   the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate for lower 
                prices for Medicare prescription drugs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 27, 2016

 Mr. Franken (for himself and Ms. Klobuchar) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend part D of title XVIII of the Social Security Act to require 
   the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate for lower 
                prices for Medicare prescription drugs.

    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 and Health 
Improvement Act of 2016''.

SEC. 2. NEGOTIATING FAIR PRICES FOR MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.

    (a) Negotiating Fair Prices.--
            (1) In general.--Section 1860D-11 of the Social Security 
        Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-111) is amended by striking subsection (i) 
        (relating to noninterference) and by inserting the following:
    ``(i) Negotiating Fair Prices With Manufacturers.--
            ``(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
        law, in furtherance of the goals of providing quality care and 
        containing costs under this part, the Secretary shall, with 
        respect to applicable covered part D drugs, and may, with 
        respect to other covered part D drugs, negotiate, as 
        appropriate (in a manner which may be similar to Federal 
        entities), with pharmaceutical manufacturers the prices (which 
        may include discounts, rebates, and other price concessions) 
        that may be charged to PDP sponsors and MA organizations for 
        such drugs for part D eligible individuals who are enrolled in 
        a prescription drug plan or in an MA-PD plan.
            ``(2) Applicable covered part d drug defined.--For purposes 
        of this subsection, the term `applicable covered part D drug' 
        means a covered part D drug that the Secretary determines to be 
        appropriate for negotiation under paragraph (1) based on one or 
        more of the following factors as applied to such drug:
                    ``(A) Spending on a per beneficiary basis.
                    ``(B) Spending under this title.
                    ``(C) Unit cost increases over the preceding years.
                    ``(D) Initial launch price.
                    ``(E) Any other criteria determined by the 
                Secretary.''.
            (2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1) 
        shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act and 
        shall first apply to negotiations and prices for plan years 
        beginning on January 1, 2018.
    (b) Biannual Reports to Congress.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 3 years after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, and every 6 months thereafter, the 
        Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit to Congress 
        a report on the following:
                    (A) The negotiations conducted by the Secretary 
                under section 1860D-11(i) of the Social Security Act 
                (42 U.S.C. 1395w-111(i)), as amended by subsection (a), 
                including a description of how such negotiations are 
                achieving lower prices for covered part D drugs (as 
                defined in section 1860D-2(e) of the Social Security 
                Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-102(e))) for Medicare 
                beneficiaries.
                    (B) Data on spending under part D of the Medicare 
                program on covered part D drugs, including data on 
                covered part D drugs with--
                            (i) high spending on a per beneficiary 
                        basis;
                            (ii) high spending for the program overall; 
                        and
                            (iii) high unit cost increases over the 
                        past five years.
                    (C) A list of the covered part D drugs with no 
                therapeutic substitute and data on spending under part 
                D of the Medicare program on such drugs.
            (2) Public availability of report.--The Secretary of Health 
        and Human Services shall publish on the Internet website of the 
        Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services a copy of each report 
        submitted under paragraph (1).
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