Bill builds on Senate’s work to reduce prescription drug costs,  promote transparency, and increase patient access   

Yesterday, the Massachusetts Senate passed by a vote of 39-1 An Act relative to Pharmaceutical Access, Cost and Transparency (PACT Act 2022), comprehensive pharmaceutical legislation to address the rapidly increasing cost of prescription drugs and to ensure life-saving medications are affordable, fairly priced and accessible for all consumers.      

“Prescription drug costs have been a major and increasing problem for people in my district for decades. This bill takes some major steps to cap prices and increase transparency and oversight. It caps out-of-pocket insulin costs, provides relief for certain high-cost drugs, and improves patient access to medications and pharmacies of their choice.” said Senator Patricia D. Jehlen (D- Somerville).  

 Too often, patients cannot access the medications they need due to high prescription drug prices. The PACT Act 2022 contains enhanced accountability tools to address this and other barriers to care. These cost barriers also contribute to unaddressed health issues and often worsen conditions. This legislation directs the Health Policy Commission (HPC), to establish a process for identifying drug price thresholds that pose a public health risk. Drug manufacturers that fail to comply with this process will be required to pay a fee that will go into a trust fund for a new drug cost assistance program to support patients with certain chronic health conditions that disproportionately impact marginalized communities. 

In a first for Massachusetts, the legislation offers immediate price relief for insulin. Insulin prices have recently risen sharply, resulting in out-of-pocket costs that can reach $1,000 or more per year for patients. This financial burden often forces patients to engage in the dangerous practice of severely limiting or forgoing the use of insulin.   

To address this problem, the PACT Act 2022 limits out-of-pocket spending on insulin by eliminating deductibles and coinsurance, and permanently capping co-pays at $25 per 30-day supply. An amendment adopted by the Senate also directs the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) to study the feasibility of requiring access to epinephrine injectors for children free from out-of-pocket costs.  

The bill also takes significant steps toward ensuring that patients can get their prescription drugs from the pharmacy of their choice. In addition, this bill provides patients with greater access to mail order prescriptions by allowing any network pharmacy to contract with carriers to provide mail-order prescriptions.  

  “As the representative of the largest number of independently owned pharmacies in Massachusetts, we are pleased at the action of the senate today to pass comprehensive legislation to address rising prescription drug costs and patient access to their local pharmacy,” said Todd Brown, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Independent Pharmacist Association. “This legislation is a major step forward in protecting patients from the rising cost of prescription drugs and barriers to care resulting from what has long been a black box of secrets by the Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) industry. We are encouraged to see that many of our concerns regarding the unfair practices of PBMs have been incorporated in this bill and support the focus on transparency and accountability which are positive developments for patients and independent pharmacies in Massachusetts.”  

The PACT Act 2022 now moves to the Massachusetts House of Representatives for consideration.