5 July 2018 - Using your insurance plan isn’t always the cheapest way to buy prescription drugs. But your pharmacist might be banned from telling you that.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are seeking ways to stop a practice that can keep customers from saving money at the drugstore counter. “Gag clauses” buried in the fine print of pharmacy contracts — and imposed by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) — prevent many pharmacists from telling customers when the cash price for a medicine may be less expensive than their insurance co-pay unless the customers directly ask.

Ending “gag clauses” is just one option as Republicans and Democrats attempt to find ways to lower the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs — both a problem for the health-care system and a political headache for both parties. President Trump singled out the clauses when he said he wanted to ban them in his May speech on drug prices, a goal also outlined in the administration’s blueprint to lower costs for pharmaceuticals. And congressional legislation has been drafted to tackle the problem.

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