Bipartisan proposal introduced after years-long advocacy campaign from CAHC members
WASHINGTON, DC (January 29, 2019): The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) – a coalition of employers, insurers, life science companies, PBMs, brokers, agents, patient groups, and physician organizations – praised the Senate release of draft text for the Patient Affordability, Value, and Effficiency (PAVE) Act.
The draft legislation, sponsored by Sens. Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Mark Warner (D-VA), would remove impediments to value-based purchasing agreements (VBAs) in federal health programs by offering a safe harbor for value-based and coordinated care models under the Anti-Kickback Statute while also providing an exclusion for VBAs under the Medicaid “best price” rule.
“We’ve seen time and again that market-based solutions work better than any government-designed program to lower costs for consumers, and that rewarding value improves outcomes,”said CAHC President Joel White. “CAHC thanks Senators Cassidy and Warner for their receptiveness to the input of our members on this draft bill. We support this measure because we simply cannot afford to leave our country’s Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries behind as the rest of the healthcare system continues its forward march toward value-based care. If Congress and the administration are serious about putting ‘American Patients First’ they’ll join us in championing this bipartisan, cost-saving solution without delay.”
CAHC first called for policy reforms to accelerate value-based purchasing agreements for prescription drugs in a widely-circulated 2017 whitepaper entitled, “Prescriptions for Competition, Value, and Innovation: Positive Reforms to Increase Access and Affordability for Prescription Drugs.” Since then, the coalition has championed solutions to expand VBAs in op-eds, social media, Congressional briefings, and individual meetings with policymakers.