Seniors' Access to Critical Medications Act of 2024

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. HARSHBARGER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 5526, the Seniors' Access to Critical Medications Act.

I thank my co-lead, Democrat Representative Wasserman Schultz, and House Energy and Commerce Chair Rodgers and Ranking Member Pallone for allowing me to advance this important legislation.

I spent 37 years working as a pharmacist in almost every area of pharmacy, and I know firsthand the importance of providing patients with serious illnesses timely and reliable access to their lifesaving medications.

Under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' interpretation of the physician self-referral law, which is known as the Stark Law, it states that it is unlawful for a medical practice, such as a community oncology practice, to deliver a prescribed and filled drug to a patient by mail or courier, UPS or Fed Ex. CMS' interpretation doesn't even allow for a family member or a caregiver to pick up the patient's drug on their behalf.

For Medicare seniors living in rural areas who don't have transportation or who are too sick to pick up their lifesaving drug, they are just simply out of luck in a lot of cases, or they are forced to rely on a nameless or faceless mail order pharmacy benefit manager, where these ``distant middlemen'' cannot quickly fine-tune necessary short-term changes or adjustments in their therapies.

Some patients will go without their oral chemotherapy medication because they can't get transportation to pick their prescription up. It can change the entire outcome for those patients. We shouldn't have obstacles in the way of patients receiving the medications they need.

The bipartisan Seniors' Access to Critical Medications Act simply ensures that cancer patients, as well as other patients, have timely access to the appropriate oral medications they need by allowing delivery of these medications or allowing family members or caregivers to pick up their medicines.

I have heard from dozens upon dozens of Tennessee oncologists and other specialty physicians and patients, as well as others around the country, who have been deeply impacted by the unnecessary hurdles created by CMS' misguided interpretation of the Stark Law.

During the pandemic, CMS recognized these barriers and issued a Stark waiver, lifting the restrictions that hindered patient access to these crucial medications.

This bill restores those flexibilities, and I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 5526 to protect Medicare beneficiaries' ability to receive the medications they need when they need them.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source