Message Subject:Please consider health system concerns on drug price increase
Message:
Dear [Congressman/Senator],
As you may know, in the last three years, prices for generic drugs that are used to treat basic medical conditions have increased hundreds to thousands of percent. The skyrocketingincrease of generic drug prices and the incredibly expensive cost of specialty drugshave placed an unjustifiable burden on patients and have created unsustainable costs for health care systems leading to compromises and disruptions in patient care.
At my hospital in (City, State), we encounter the “unreasonable” increases in generic drug costs daily, even for the commonly used drugs that have been available for many years. For instance, Flucytosine, an old generic antifungal medicine,rose in price from $500 to $12,000 per bottle. Isuprel, a medication that is used to treat heart conditions, has jumped 3700% and now costs $1700 per 1mg/5ml vial. It is a daily challenge for hospital pharmacists to ensure that the patients have the best and most cost-effective therapy and not having to incur the enormous cost to the hospital and the health system.
In 2016, an academic medical center reported that “the price for the 20 most costly drugs purchased by the hospital in the past 18 months has increased by 11% on average, or about $2 million. For the workhorse drugs that are widely used throughout the hospital, such as analgesics, anesthesia drugs, and surgical drugs, the cost increase over 18 months has ranged from 126% to 5000%.” [1] The pharmacy drug expenses and inventory cost expanded beyond budgetary projections. The hospital administrators rely on pharmacy to provide a solution to this problem of high drug costs, and there is very little that hospital pharmacy can do to minimize the impact of the increase in drug costs without rejecting evidence-based medicine and jeopardizing safe patient care.
I greatly appreciate previous and current Congressional efforts directed at better understanding and finding a solution to this issue.As your constituent, I strongly urge continued engagement from Congress to monitor drug pricing increase activity, ultimately to ensure appropriate patient access to these important therapies at an affordable price.
I am available for further discussion if you have questions in regarding to this critical issue.
Sincerely,
[Name]
[1] ASHP Pharmacy News, Hospital Pharmacies Cope with Surge in Drug Prices (February 15, 2016)