Mes: enero 2021

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — State Representative Eddie Lucio, III (D-Brownsville) today filed House Bill 1093, legislation that would increase oversight of pharmacy benefit managers and improve patient choice for prescription drugs. The legislation is one of the Texas Pharmacy Association’s top priorities for the 87th Legislative Session.

Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, serve as middlemen between health plans, patients, and pharmacies, determining not only which prescription drugs are covered but also at which pharmacies patients can fill their prescriptions. The three largest PBMs are responsible for nearly 85% of the nation’s drug claims.

«The time has come for Texas to take reasonable measures on behalf of pharmacists and their patients in the name of fair competition and public health,» Lucio said. «As we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to increase patients’ access to the pharmacy of their choice to improve health care for all. It’s also essential to pass legislation that supports our state’s pharmacies, many of which are locally owned small businesses.»

PBMs face mounting scrutiny nationwide for their lack of transparency and their role in driving up the cost of prescription drugs. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous 8–0 opinion issued in December 2020, affirmed that states may act to protect local businesses and their patients from PBM overreach.

«The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of community pharmacies, which have remained open on the front lines to serve their communities by filling prescriptions, counseling patients, offering COVID-19 tests, and administering COVID-19 vaccines to thousands of patients,» said TPA President Michelle Beall, Pharm.D. «It is critical that we do not allow patients and pharmacies to be harmed by the anti-competitive business practices of these middlemen.»

Increasingly, PBMs engage in self-dealing by directing or requiring patients to use PBM-owned mail-order or specialty pharmacies, limiting patient choice and in some cases, increasing prescription costs. House Bill 1093 prohibits PBMs from steering patients to their own pharmacies, improving market competition and allowing patients to choose the pharmacy of their choice. It also prohibits PBMs from forcing patients to receive medications by mail who would prefer to use a local pharmacy. At the same time, it would allow patients who prefer to receive their medications by mail or delivery to do so from their local pharmacy.    

House Bill 1093 also protects small businesses by preventing unfair pharmacy direct and indirect remuneration clawbacks that arbitrarily recoup additional money from pharmacies after the sale. This provision will provide pharmacies with greater business certainty, particularly during the pandemic.

Media Contact

Debbie Garza, R.Ph., Texas Pharmacy Association, +1 512-615-9140, bsparks@texaspharmacy.org

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SOURCE Texas Pharmacy Association

CHICAGO, Jan. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Groundbreaking reforms and protections for Illinoisans, which were part of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus’s agenda and advocated for by Heartland Alliance, were passed by the General Assembly in Springfield yesterday and today during the legislature’s lame duck session.

«These new laws will provide important reforms to help people who are struggling to make ends meet,» said Rachel Ruttenberg, Heartland Alliance’s Director of Policy. «The progress made by the Illinois Legislature today will lay the groundwork for how to continue to address systemic racism, and fight for equity and opportunity for all. We urge the Governor to sign these acts into law as soon as possible and we thank the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus leadership.»

Predatory Loan Prevention Act: Historic legislation will protect Illinoisans who need to take out loans. Currently, the average APR (annual percentage rate) on a payday loan is 297 percent and the average APR on a title loan is 179 percent. Once signed by the Governor, the new law will establish a 36 percent APR cap on all consumer loans in the state.

Payday and auto title lenders disproportionately target communities of color. If a person lives in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, which is 89.9% Black, compared with Lincoln Park, which is 4% Black, they are more than 13 times more likely to have taken out a payday loan.

This act was advocated for by our Illinois Asset Building Group, Woodstock Institute, Illinois PIRG, AARP Illinois, and a coalition of over 50 industry, government, community, and advocacy leaders.

Public Housing Access Bill: New legislation, the first in the country, will create uniform standards for the more than 100 public housing authorities across Illinois to use in the criminal background screening process so that it is more equitable. People with criminal records can now access public housing with no consideration of non-convictions, such as arrest histories, juvenile records, or expunged and sealed records. Public housing authorities can only consider criminal background 6 months from the time of application, and public housing authorities must do an individualized assessment for all applicants with criminal records.

According to our recent study, Never Fully Free: The Scale and Impact of Permanent Punishments on People with Criminal Records in Illinois, of the 1.2 million adults convicted of crimes in Illinois since 1979, nearly 35 percent are Black — a rate over two and half times as high as the percent of Illinois adults who are Black.

This bill was advocated for in partnership with the Restoring Rights and Opportunities Coalition of Illinois, which includes Cabrini-Green Legal Aid, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and Community Renewal Society.

License to Work Act II: This legislation ends the suspension of driver’s licenses for unpaid tickets related to automated camera enforcement, including red-light camera and automated speed camera tickets. It also reinstates licenses that have holds or suspensions for both unpaid traffic tickets and automated camera tickets. Transportation is critical for employment, especially for people who are struggling to make ends meet; if people cannot work, they cannot pay off their debt. This legislation will help approximately 300,000 Illinoisans right now and thousands more in the future who have driver’s license suspensions for economic reasons.

Driver’s license suspensions for unpaid automated camera tickets specifically harm Black Illinoisans the most. In fact, the top ten Illinois zip codes with the most driver’s license suspensions for unpaid automated camera tickets have between 74 and 92 percent of residents who are Black – with Chicago’s Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods at the top of the list.

This act was advocated for by Heartland Alliance through our work with the Transit Table, a coalition convened by the Chicago Jobs Council and other advocates working to eliminate transportation barriers to that keep people out of work and in poverty.

About Heartland Alliance
Heartland Alliance, one of the world’s leading anti-poverty and human rights organizations, works in communities in the U.S. and abroad to serve people experiencing homelessness, living in poverty, or seeking safety. The organization provides a comprehensive array of services and advocates for policy change in the areas of safety and justice, health and healing, and economic opportunity.

Media Contact

Joseph Dutra, Heartland Alliance, 312-350-0602, jdutra@heartlandalliance.org

SOURCE Heartland Alliance

NEW YORK, Jan. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomes today’s House passage of the impeachment resolution and reiterates our unqualified condemnation of the actions of President Donald J. Trump, which, by any measure, run counter to the democratic values we hold dear, and disqualify him from continuing to occupy the highest office in the land.

He has subverted the will of American voters by falsely alleging, without evidence, that the November 2020 election was illegitimate, beset with fraud, and «stolen.» Beyond that, he has incited his followers to commit acts of insurrection which involved an assault on a sacred edifice and which resulted in chaos, injury, and death.

For these reasons, AJC calls upon those public officials charged with responsibility for addressing such conduct to utilize the available and appropriate means at their disposal to hold the President accountable for his conduct – politically, historically, and, if and where appropriate, in the courts. 

AJC always has, and always will, promote the strengthening of democratic values, fidelity to constitutional principles, and strict adherence to the rule of law.  No one who swears an oath to uphold the Constitution, and to protect our democracy from enemies foreign or domestic, should escape accountability when that sacred oath is violated.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ajc-statement-on-impeachment-of-president-trump-301207993.html

SOURCE American Jewish Committee