Medicare Prescription Drug Program Integrity and Transparency Act of 2013
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Medicare Prescription Drug Program Integrity and Transparency Act of 2013 - Amends part D (Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit Program) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require each contract entered into with a prescription drug plan (PDP) sponsor with respect to a PDP the sponsor offers to prohibit the PDP from entering into a contract with any pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) to manage the prescription drug coverage provided under such plan, or to control the costs of the prescription drug coverage under it, unless the manager satisfies specified PBM audit and disclosure requirements.
Requires a PBM to provide: (1) a particular aggregate average reimbursement rate for generics or a maximum average discount off of an accepted pharmaceutical pricing benchmark for multi-source generics as a whole ("generic effective rate"), and (2) a process for the generic effective rate to be appealed. Revises requirements for contracts with PDP sponsors to require that the PDP sponsor or a subcontractor of the sponsor disclose to a pharmacy, at the time when a contract is offered and at least once every seven days, the methodology and actual per unit reimbursement amount for each covered drug for each contracted pharmacy.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on May 6, 2013. 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 May 6, 2013: 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 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 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?
Mark Pryor (D-AR) introduced it on May 6, 2013, and 5 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 1 Democrat, 4 Republicans.
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 May 6, 2013, 4875 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4875 days ago, on May 6, 2013.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 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