Bipartisan Congressional Legislation Introduced Seeking Shared Savings Demo Project to Increase Biological/Biosimilar Medicare Access

U.S. Senators Cornyn (R-TX) and Bennet (D-CO) have introduced the Increasing Access to Biosimilars Act also known as S. 1427. The bill seeks to establish a demonstration project to increase access to biosimilar biological products under the Medicare program.  

According to Senator Cornyn’s press release “this legislation would direct HHS to establish a shared savings demonstration project to increase access to biosimilars in the Medicare program. This would encourage physicians to prescribe less-expensive biosimilars increasing patient access to more affordable, life-saving drugs and lowering patient out-of-pocket costs.

Under the demonstration, Medicare would provide an additional payment to providers for using lower-cost biosimilar products that reflects the savings created in contrast to administering the higher-cost reference biological product. Additionally, Medicare can use a portion of those savings to reduce the beneficiary’s coinsurance payment.”

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