Kelly Cleary Quoted in Modern Healthcare on Drug Rebate Rule
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Modern Healthcare has quoted Akin Gump health care and life sciences partner Kelly Cleary in the article “Trump’s executive order on drug rebate rule may not be binding.”
The article discusses a final rule submitted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the White House budget office that would require pharmacy benefit managers to retain rebates paid by drugmakers. President Trump signed an executive order in July stating that HHS must publicly certify that any such policy will not increase insurance premiums, federal spending or Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs.
According to Modern Healthcare, drugmakers are in favor of the policy, as it would protect them from the sticker prices of some expensive drugs, while pharmacy benefit managers and insurers oppose it. Even the most favorable cost analyses of the proposed rebate rule, the article says, predict it would increase Medicare beneficiaries’ premiums in all scenarios, but HHS is not legally bound to any particular analysis when certifying the rule’s financial impacts.
“I think there is a scenario where the [HHS] Secretary could make an assumption that premiums will not increase,” said Cleary, a former deputy general counsel at HHS under the Trump administration. The executive order, she said, is not binding for the administration and carries no legal significance.
