COMPTROLLER LEMBO: SAYS TROUBLING REPORT BY THE OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL SHOULD TRIGGER IMMEDIATE FEDERAL ACTION - Kevin Lembo Archive - CT Office of the State Comptroller
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Kevin Lembo
Kevin Lembo
Former CT State Comptroller
2011-2021

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COMPTROLLER LEMBO: SAYS TROUBLING REPORT BY THE OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL SHOULD TRIGGER IMMEDIATE FEDERAL ACTION

Monday, June 4, 2018

Comptroller Kevin Lembo issued a statement following the release today of a report by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that reveals troubling details about the crisis of skyrocketing prescription drugs and the long-term implications for taxpayers and patients.

Most notably, Lembo said, the OIG report revealed that overall reimbursement costs for all brand-name drugs for Medicare Part D increased 77 percent, despite a 17-percent decrease in the number of prescriptions for these drugs.

“In no rational marketplace would we tolerate a 77-percent increase in costs for a 17-percent decrease in product,” Lembo said. “This report should give the federal government no excuse but to act immediately to stop unjustified pharmaceutical marketplace practices that cost both money and lives.

“Connecticut is at the forefront of this fight, enacting a law just last week, to establish new groundbreaking transparency requirements for pharmaceutical corporations when drug prices skyrocket. The extreme wealth exchange between corporate giants, from pharmaceutical manufacturers to pharmacy benefit managers to insurance companies, will no longer happen in the dark. Connecticut may be a leader in this fight, but the federal government must be a partner in outlawing and prosecuting bad behavior now that we have the information necessary to act.”

Lembo and State Rep. Sean Scanlon (D-Guilford), co-chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, championed the state legislation, which Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed last week, called An Act Concerning Prescription Drug Costs.

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