S 908 · 117th Congress 2021–2023, ended

Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act

Introduced Mar 23, 2021 Originated Senate Sponsor Bernard Sanders I-VT

Fact sheet

Latest action · Mar 23, 2021 Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security. Hearings held.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedMar 23, 2021
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act

This bill makes a series of changes relating to the prices of prescription drugs under the Medicare prescription drug benefit and Medicare Advantage (MA) prescription drug plans (PDPs).

Under current law, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) may neither negotiate the prices of covered drugs nor establish a formulary. The bill repeals these restrictions and instead specifically requires the CMS to (1) negotiate the prices of covered drugs; and (2) either establish a formulary for covered drugs, or require changes to PDP formularies that take into account CMS negotiations.

If the CMS is unable to negotiate an appropriate price for a drug in accordance with certain criteria, the price must be the lowest of three specified options (e.g., the median price in other countries). The CMS must identify drugs that are subject to negotiation, with priority given to certain categories of drugs based on usage and cost.

Additionally, drug manufacturers must issue rebates to the CMS for drugs dispensed to eligible low-income individuals. Subject to civil monetary penalties, a Medicare or MA PDP sponsor must report, both to drug manufacturers and to the CMS, specified information related to the determination and payment of such rebates.

Cosponsors 8

Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Mar 23, 2021.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
D-CAAlex PadillaOriginalMar 23, 2021
D-NJCory A. BookerOriginalMar 23, 2021
D-MAElizabeth WarrenOriginalMar 23, 2021
D-RIJack ReedOriginalMar 23, 2021
D-NYKirsten E. GillibrandOriginalMar 23, 2021
D-VTPatrick J. LeahyOriginalMar 23, 2021
D-CTRichard BlumenthalOriginalMar 23, 2021
D-MNTina SmithOriginalMar 23, 2021

Actions 3

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Mar 23, 2021Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security. Hearings held.
  2. Mar 23, 2021Introduced in Senate
  3. Mar 23, 2021Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Related bills 1

Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.

BillTitleRelationshipLatest action
HR 2139Medicare Drug Price Negotiation ActIdentical billMar 24, 2021

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Health.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Mar 23, 2021Introduced in Senate

Support LegiList

This page is free, carries no paywall, and is built and maintained by one person. If the record here is useful to you, a few dollars keeps it going.

$1 $5 $10

Processed by Stripe in a separate window. LegiList never sees card details.

Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.