AMP is WAC (and other thoughts)
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ABOUT AMP is WAC
Average Manufacturer Price (AMP) is not equal to Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC), but it is close. And since the whole world of health policy and reimbursement is a bit WAC-y, that’s what we’re calling this update/blog part of the site. All of the opinions and thoughts presented here are our own and not the views of clients or affiliates.
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Caught my eye — 6/14/24
Read more: Caught my eye — 6/14/24Summer vibes are real in the DC area this week with schools letting out and pool time kicking in. College wood bat baseball league games are on, and the summer night hang out is in full swing. I don’t know if it is my mood or the season or both, but things seem a little…
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Caught my eye — 06/07/24
Read more: Caught my eye — 06/07/24A relatively quiet week around these parts. I think everyone is so ASCO’d and BIO’d that policy is taking a quick breather. A PDAB will do you. The National Pharmaceutical Council put out a nice round-up comparing four prescription drug affordability boards. The chart is my favorite part – Extra, extra. Elevance Health, a health…
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Getting nowhere fast
Read more: Getting nowhere fastMy mom said to never use the word hate but, honestly, I hate step therapy. I dislike prior authorization but step therapy, well I hate it. Both fall under the concept of utilization management which are barriers to access put up by payers (really pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)) for cost or safety concerns. The idea…
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Caught my eye — 05/31/24
Read more: Caught my eye — 05/31/24Trying to change my view. I don’t know if it is summer malaise setting in or an existential crisis about the state of society, sometimes it is hard to tell. Earlier this week, Jessica Yellin of News Not Noise pointed out that a lot of articles are really negatively titled and it is driving a…
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No Time for Patience
Read more: No Time for PatienceToday I’m doing a presentation for patient advocates on the Initial Price Applicability Year (IPAY) Guidance 2027 that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services put out a few weeks ago. I thought you might enjoy the overview as well. Long story short – the guidance is focused on the Medicare negotiation process for 2027.…
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340B, Caught my eye, Drug Prices, Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare Negotiation, Pharmacy Benefit Managers, State-based ReformCaught my eye — 05/24/24
Read more: Caught my eye — 05/24/24Coulda, woulda, shoulda. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary committee had a hearing on prescription drug prices. It became clear that comparisons to international prices remain a focus but so is patent abuse. I am not sure that’s a fair characterization. What companies are doing is legal and I’m not sure they’d be doing their fiduciary…
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Part B, ASP and 340B
Read more: Part B, ASP and 340BRecently RAND put out a study about prices paid to hospitals by private payers. Right in the summary is a statistic that made me pause – commercial insurance prices for administered drugs received in a hospital setting averaged 278 percent of average sales price (ASP) compared with 106% of ASP paid by Medicare for administered…
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Caught my eye — 5/17/24
Read more: Caught my eye — 5/17/24Crab cakes and … horse racing. That’s what Maryland does. Mine will come with a side of Smith Island cake which I’m making tomorrow morning. Wish me luck. Odds aren’t stacked. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the Medicaid rule won’t contain the stacking provision. A little odd to pre-announce it,…
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It just keeps on growing
Read more: It just keeps on growingWhen I first got into this pharmaceutical health policy and reimbursement world in 2005, I mostly ignored 340B. It was a big discount that was required, and you couldn’t do anything about it, so it just was. Then maybe 2012 or so I remember Andy Swire from Amgen was super amped up about 340B…
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340B, Caught my eye, Drug Prices, Employers, Healthcare Costs, ICER, Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare Negotiation, Medicare Part D, Medicare Transaction Facilitator, Reference Pricing, ValueCaught my eye — 5/10/24
Read more: Caught my eye — 5/10/24Back to back. Arnold Ventures put out the latest anti-pharma talking points (h/t Brian Reid) and here were two back to back – Here’s the problem, it really isn’t about the cost of drugs. I mean you could take that drug price and reduce it 98% and the 25% cost share would still be too…
Latest news
- AMP is WAC — 05/15/26
- AMP is WAC — 5/1/26
- AMP is WAC — 04/24/26
- AMP is WAC — 04/10/26
- AMP is WAC — 03/27/26
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