By Danielle Brown
“State officials determined that Ozempic, a popular diabetes treatment and weight-loss drug, is unaffordable for Marylanders and voted Monday to limit how much state and local governments will pay for it on state health plans. …”
“Meanwhile, some patient advocates and lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry continue to insist that the board’s decision could actually reduce access to the drugs and are skeptical whether savings will result in lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers.”
“’It is patients who could face the consequences through new insurance barriers such as formulary changes, adverse tiering, and expanded utilization management,’ Tiffany Westrich-Robertson said in a written statement on behalf of patient advocacy groups Ensuring Access through Collaborative Health and Patient Inclusion Council.”
“’Patients need reforms that directly reduce out-of-pocket costs and protect access to the medication that works for them, not policies that may create new barriers to care without guaranteeing meaningful savings for patients,’ her statement said.”