ATTACHMENT G July 26, 2018 To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives: Pursuant to Article LVI, as amended by Article XC, Section 3 of the Amendments to the Constitution, I am returning to you for amendment Section 63 of House Bill No. 4800, Act Making Appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2019 for the Maintenance of “An the Departments, Boards, Commissions, Institutions and Certain Activities of the Commonwealth, for Interest, Sinking Fund and Serial Bond Requirements and for Certain Permanent Improvements.” Section 63 extends the sunset on sections that permit pharmaceutical manufacturing companies to offer drug rebates and coupons. These sections were originally scheduled to sunset on July 1, 2015, but have already been extended two times. The policy allowing drug rebates and coupons warrants more study before we extend this sunset for two years a third time. These rebates were originally prohibited because of concerns that that they can drive up the cost of health care and undermine pharmacy management strategies. On the other hand, these rebates may also help consumers afford otherwise cost-prohibitive drugs. Massachusetts now has multiple of experience under this policy. We should learn from those years of experience before approving a longer extension of the current policy. That is why I propose to extend the sunset by one year, rather than two, and have the Health Policy Commission undertake a study to review the available data and examine the effect of drug couponing on pharmaceutical spending and consumer access to prescription drugs in Massachusetts. Such a study will help inform this important policy decision. For these reasons, I recommend that Section 63 be amended by striking out the text and inserting in place thereof the following text:- Section 63. Section 226 of chapter 139 of the acts of 2012 is hereby amended by striking out the figure inserted by section 129 of chapter 133 of the acts of 2016, and “2019”, inserting in thereof the following figure:- 2020;
ATTACHMENT G July 26, 2018 To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives: Pursuant to Article LVI, as amended by Article XC, Section 3 of the Amendments to the Constitution, I am returning to you for amendment Section 63 of House Bill No. 4800, “An Act Making Appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2019 for the Maintenance of the Departments, Boards, Commissions, Institutions and Certain Activities of the Commonwealth, for Interest, Sinking Fund and Serial Bond Requirements and for Certain Permanent Improvements.” Section 63 extends the sunset on sections that permit pharmaceutical manufacturing companies to offer drug rebates and coupons. These sections were originally scheduled to sunset on July 1, 2015, but have already been extended two times. The policy allowing drug rebates and coupons warrants more study before we extend this sunset for two years a third time. These rebates were originally prohibited because of concerns that that they can drive up the cost of health care and undermine pharmacy management strategies. On the other hand, these rebates may also help consumers afford otherwise cost-prohibitive drugs. Massachusetts now has multiple of experience under this policy. We should learn from those years of experience before approving a longer extension of the current policy. That is why I propose to extend the sunset by one year, rather than two, and have the Health Policy Commission undertake a study to review the available data and examine the effect of drug couponing on pharmaceutical spending and consumer access to prescription drugs in Massachusetts. Such a study will help inform this important policy decision. For these reasons, I recommend that Section 63 be amended by striking out the text and inserting in place thereof the following text:- Section 63. Section 226 of chapter 139 of the acts of 2012 is hereby amended by striking out the figure “2019”, inserted by section 129 of chapter 133 of the acts of 2016, and inserting in thereof the following figure:- 2020;