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Bill would require pharmacies to report price data

Pharmacy Regulation Resource, April 27, 2005

Pharmacies could have to file quarterly reports on the 50 most-prescribed medications to a government-run Web site if a bill introduced March 17 on Capitol Hill becomes law.

The Hospital Price Disclosure Act would require hospitals to report quarterly pricing data of the 25 most-performed inpatient procedures, the 25 most-performed outpatient procedures, and the 50 most-frequently administered medications. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would collect the data and put it on a public Web site.

Representatives Dan Lipinski (D-IL) and Bob Inglis (R-SC) co-sponsored the legislation. Lipinski drafted the bill after seeing a hospital invoice for care after a bicycling accident last summer, according to his office.

"I looked closely at the bill, and I was amazed at the costs," Lipinski said in a statement. "The hospital was charging nearly $5 for a single-use packet of antibiotic ointment. Walgreens charges little more than $6 for an entire tube of the same stuff that is 32 times larger than the hospital's packet."

The bill's goal is to allow consumers to shop for the lowest-priced care, which will in turn drive down costs and increase quality, Lipinski's office said.

Pricing transparency could help hospitals improve care, says American Hospital Association (AHA) spokesperson Alicia Mitchell, but having one federal law may place a burden on hospitals.

"Hospitals are as unique as the patients they serve," Mitchell says. "What makes sense in Des Moines may not make sense in Detroit."

For example, one hospital maintains a pricing hotline for patients to call with questions about bills or charges, Mitchell says. Hospitals must be able to present the information to their communities in user-friendly means, she says.

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