Rebate rule redux? Not quite ...

If you’re like me, your mouth was agape when Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced during Thursday’s markup of the Senate Finance Committee’s sweeping drug pricing package that he wants to include a “similar policy” to the Trump administration's rebate rule in the package before it hits the Senate floor … especially given the Trump administration had to abandon that idea after it was estimated to cost more than $170 billion. Well, it turns out that’s not exactly what Grassley actually had in mind.

Grassley’s spokesman told me yesterday that the senator’s chief concern is making sure rebate savings are shared with patients. “There are several legislative options in addition to the administration’s approach to make sure that rebate savings go to the patient at the pharmacy counter,” the spokesman said. 

And while Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pledged Thursday to work with Grassley on the idea, his aide also told me it was unlikely Congress would take the same approach that the Trump administration had proposed, and, much like Grassley’s staffer, emphasized that Wyden is looking for ways to share rebate savings with patients.