Medicare drug re­bates re­ward in­dus­try play­ers — and of­ten hurt pa­tients

Medicare and its ben­e­fi­cia­ries aren’t the win­ners in the be­hind-the-scenes re­bate game played by drug­mak­ers, health in­sur­ers and phar­ma­cy ben­e­fit man­agers, ac­cord­ing to a pa­per pub­lished Tues­day in JA­MA In­ter­nal Med­i­cine.

The pa­per, which dives in­to the com­plex and opaque world of Medicare drug price ne­go­ti­a­tions, finds that re­bates may ac­tu­al­ly dri­ve up the amount Medicare and its ben­e­fi­cia­ries pay for drugs — es­pe­cial­ly for in­creas­ing­ly com­mon high-priced drugs — and it of­fers some sys­temic so­lu­tions.

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