Prescription Drug and Health Improvement Act of 2017
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Prescription Drug and Health Improvement Act of 2017
This bill requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to negotiate lower prices on behalf of Medicare and Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries for covered prescription drugs that the CMS deems appropriate for negotiation based on: (1) program and per-beneficiary spending, (2) unit price increases over the preceding years, (3) initial launch price, (4) availability of similarly effective alternative treatments, (5) status of the drug as a follow-on to previously approved drugs, and (6) any other criteria determined by the CMS.
If, after a one year period, negotiations with respect to a covered prescription drug prove unsuccessful, the CMS shall establish a price for the drug that is equal to the lesser of the price paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs or the price paid by the four largest federal pharmaceutical-drug purchasers.
The CMS may (but is not required to) negotiate lower prices on behalf of Medicare and MA beneficiaries for other covered prescription drugs.
The Government Accountability Office must report to Congress on the CMS' negotiations.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation must test several specified models for negotiating drug and biological prices.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on February 9, 2017. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on February 9, 2017: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 115th Congress (2017-18), 442 of the 11,421 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.9 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Al Franken (D-MN) introduced it on February 9, 2017, and 3 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 3 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on February 9, 2017, 3500 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3500 days ago, on February 9, 2017.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 115th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2019 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers