William (Will) Walters, Associate, in the firm’s Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in AIS Health Radar on Drug Benefits, in “Senators Pull Few Punches at PBM Execs During Insulin-Cost Hearing,” by Leslie Small. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
During a May 10 hearing held by a key Senate committee — one day before that same committee advanced a PBM reform bill — politicians laid blame at the feet of both PBMs and drugmakers for the fact that high out-of-pocket costs for insulin and other medications have kept many Americans from accessing lifesaving therapies. But it was PBMs that received the sharpest criticism — including some memorable comments from Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). …
USPSTF Could Mandate Greater Insulin Coverage
One potential way to ensure that insulin is accessible to more people for $0 cost-sharing would be for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to recommend insulin as a preventive service for insulin-dependent individuals living with diabetes, argues a recent Health Affairs article.
“The bar would be pretty low for insulin to receive a recommendation targeted to those living with diabetes,” says William Walters, who co-authored the article and is an associate at Washington, D.C. law firm Epstein, Becker & Green. “Proper insulin use obviously requires management from a medical professional, but under the correct supervision, insulin is lifesaving. It’s hard to imagine insulin receiving anything other than an A or B rating,” Walters tells AIS Health, a division of MMIT.
