AMAC Supports Transparency in Healthcare with PATIENT Act

The PATIENT Act increases price transparency requirements for hospitals and insurers, mandates price transparency for pharmacy benefit managers (PBM), and makes it easier and more transparent for generic drugs to enter the market, among other provisions.

June 23, 2023

The Honorable Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Chair
Energy & Commerce Committee
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Frank Pallone
Ranking Member
Energy & Commerce Committee
2322 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chair Rodgers and Ranking Member Pallone,

On behalf of the 2.1 million members of AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens, I am pleased to offer our support for the PATIENT Act, H.R. 3561. The importance of this legislation to reduce the cost of healthcare cannot be understated. AMAC strongly supports this legislation for the following
reasons:

• Increasing price transparency requirements for hospitals and insurers by building on the price transparency rules created by the Trump and Biden Administrations.
• Ending the practice of clawbacks used by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to charge consumers more for prescription drugs than is paid to the pharmacy.
• Mandate price transparency for PBMs to understand where rebates are going and who benefits from the rebate.
• Lowering the costs paid by Medicare by allowing site-neutral drug administration.
• Making it easier and more transparent for generic drugs to enter the market.

The PATIENT Act is a product of bipartisan work by the Energy and Commerce Committee, and AMAC cannot thank Chair Rodgers and Ranking Member Pallone enough for spearheading this effort to increase transparency to lower the cost of healthcare. AMAC has followed the process this legislation has taken through multiple hearings and markups to produce this bipartisan legislation which was voted
out of committee unanimously.

AMAC has asked our members to reach out to their Representatives and urge them to cosponsor the PATIENT Act. We are happy that the legislation has reached over 20 bipartisan cosponsors. AMAC offers our support for the PATIENT Act on behalf of our members and applauds the Energy & Commerce Committee’s hard work in bringing additional transparency to the complex healthcare industry.

Thank you, Chair Rodgers and Ranking Member Pallone, for your efforts to reduce the cost of medical services and for helping patients take more control over their healthcare.

Sincerely,

Bob Carlstrom
President
AMAC Action