The National Governors Association released a report offering strategies to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals and ease the burden on state budgets as they combat public health crises.
Delaware was one of 11 states vetting strategies for the report.
It offers tactics for dealing with the high cost of pharmaceuticals, particularly naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote, and antiviral drugs used to treat Hepatitis C.
Delaware Health and Social Services Secretary Dr. Kara Odom-Walker participated in discussions that helped build the report. She says Delaware is looking into paying ahead for some of its costlier pharmaceuticals.
“Sort of like what you would do for Netflix purchases. You,
sort of, prepay in advance for those services. This is the same idea we’re that
thinking about for pharmaceuticals that are very costly but also really do help
people achieve a cure,” said Walker.
The report also recommends considering excluding some drugs from Medicaid purchasing, reassessing the value of certain drugs and a putting into place a Medicaid spending cap for pharmaceuticals.
Walker participated in discussions points to a recommendation in the report for bulk spending. She says there are opportunities in Delaware to save money buying pharmaceuticals in bulk for populations certain to need them.
“You think about Hepatitis C and all of those who are in correctional facilities who are high risk for having Hepatitis C—how we can think about leveraging bulk purchasing or how we can think about prepaying for those services,” she said.
Nationally, Hepatitis C accounts for less than a percent of Medicaid claims, but 32 percent of Medicaid drug spending is for Hep C medication.
And in Delaware alone, first responders administered naloxone more than 2,700 times last year.
Walker says the strategies in the report complement the work in Delaware to advance a health care spending benchmark and value-based care.
