Meeting Public Comments

Olivia Perry [Vision Health Advocacy Coalition]

Please see attached letter

Stephanie Hu [Movement Disorders Policy Coalition]

RE: Bill HSB 99 Copay Accumulator Reform Members of the House Commerce Subcommittee: On behalf of the Movement Disorders Policy Coalition, I am writing in support of Bill HSB 99. We are supportive of this bill as a whole, which aims to reform the expanding role pharmacy benefit managers in drug pricing. We would like to emphasize the importance of the costsharing provision. This legislation is critical to ensuring that patients in Iowa including those with movement disorders can utilize copay coupons to afford the medications they need while being protected against surprise outofpocket costs. The Movement Disorders Policy Coalition (MDPC) serves as a platform from which stakeholders, including health care providers and patients, can provide input on policy decisions impacting patientcentered care for those living with movement disorders. As a coalition of stakeholder groups across the movement disorders space, MDPC advocates at the federal, state, and health plan levels for key health reforms that increase access to personalized care for patients with movement disorders including Parkinsons disease, essential tremor, tardive dyskinesia, Tourette Syndrome, dystonia, ataxia and Huntingtons disease. For patients in commercial health plans, copay coupons can be vital in affording their medications. These copay coupons provide payment toward the prescription costsharing requirements patients manage, allowing patients to access their medications and contribute toward their annual deductible, or outofpocket cost limit. However, a now common insurance practice called copay accumulator programs limits copay coupons benefit for patients. Insurance companies will still accept the coupon payment, but the copay accumulator program disallows copay coupon payments from contributing to a patient's annual deductible, which can lead to surprise outofpocket costs. The increased cost to movement disorder and other patients as a result of copay accumulator programs can be detrimental to the health and wellbeing of patients. These surprise outofpocket costs can force patients to ration or discontinue their medications and treatments, leading to new or worsening symptoms, new side effects, and increased physician visits. In addition to being dangerous, this places an undue burden on patients who are already managing complex and/or severe movement disorders which can lead to worsening mental health. Bill HSB 99 will protect affordability and accessibility by ensuring that all payments made on behalf of an insurance plan member, including those payments made using a copay coupon, are counted toward that patients outofpocket maximum. Most notably, this protects patients, including those with movement disorders, by ensuring access to the medication they need without fear of surprise outofpocket costs. On behalf of the Movement Disorders Policy Coalition, thank you for your leadership on this important issue. If we can provide further details or answer any questions, please reach out to Stephanie Hu at shuallianceforpatientaccess.org. Sincerely, Stephanie Hu Director Movement Disorders Policy Coalition