AHA Expresses Support for Drug-Price Transparency for Consumers Act

The Honorable Charles E. Grassley                              The Honorable Richard J. Durbin
United States Senate                                                     United States Senate
135 Hart Senate Office Building                                     711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510                                                   Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Grassley and Senator Durbin:

On behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners – including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers – and the 43,000 individuals who belong to our professional membership groups, the American Hospital Association (AHA) writes in support of S. 2304, Drug-Price Transparency for Consumers Act of 2021.

America’s hospitals and health systems are supportive of your legislation enabling the Department of Health and Human Services to require the disclosure of drug pricing information in direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising. DTC advertising has the potential to lead to high-cost prescription drugs’ overutilization, even when lower cost, equally effective options may be available. This practice of DTC advertising, is contributing to the unsustainable rate of growth in prescription drug spending, which annually consumes an increasingly large portion of health care dollars. Not only is requiring disclosure of drug pricing information in DTC advertising an important step in lowering the overall cost of prescription drugs, but it also will provide consumers with useful information as they engage in discussions with their providers about the best treatment options for their individual health care needs.

We appreciate your leadership on this important issue and look forward to working together to ensure passage of this legislation.

Sincerely,

/s/

Stacey Hughes Executive Vice President