<\/p>\n
May 26, 2020<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Media contact: National Consumers League \u2013 Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242\u202for\u00a0Taun\u00a0Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202)\u202f207-2832<\/p>\n
Washington, DC\u2014The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation\u2019s pioneering consumer advocacy organization, expresses concern about the Trump Administration\u2019s Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters Rule for 2021.<\/p>\n
The following statement is attributable to NCL’s Executive Director Sally Greenberg:<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a toll across the country, consumers should not be subjected to additional obstacles when trying to access the care they need. We are therefore deeply troubled by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decision to permit health plans to use accumulator adjustment programs in its Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters Rule for 2021.<\/p>\n
This is a step in the wrong direction at a time when consumers are struggling to make ends meet. Under these programs, health insurers are not required to count manufacturer cost-sharing assistance toward patients\u2019 annual deductibles, even when no medically appropriate generic equivalent is available. Many patients typically rely on very specific treatments that have no generic or other alternative, resulting in already high out-of-pocket spending. Removing this cost-sharing assistance will force those patients to pay thousands of dollars more in unexpected costs at the pharmacy. These new costs could push some to forego those medications, leading to worsened health outcomes. This could compromise medication adherence and will lead to increased health care costs over time.<\/p>\n
Given the significant financial pressure this will place on patients and the negative impact it could have for our health care system as a whole, we ask that HHS reconsider the reversal of its original protections against these programs. Any subsequent course of action should seek to take the burden off of consumers. Employers and insurers must recognize that this is not the time to create barriers to care and refrain from implementing accumulator adjustment programs in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n
###<\/p>\n
About the National Consumers League<\/strong><\/p>\n The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneering consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" May 26, 2020 Media contact: National Consumers League \u2013 Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242\u202for\u00a0Taun\u00a0Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202)\u202f207-2832 Washington, DC\u2014The National Consumers League (NCL), the nation\u2019s pioneering consumer advocacy organization, expresses concern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[416,16,288,289],"tags":[412],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17784,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions\/17784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}