MEDIA ADVISORY FOR:
Thursday, April 18th, 2019 at 9am
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan ▪ BKhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
Culinary Union Lobby Day in Carson City – April 18th
Press conference at 9am in front of the Legislative Building
What: Culinary Union to bring workers and directly-affected patients to Carson City and host a press conference on the steps of the Nevada Legislative Building.
Culinary Union members, patients, and community allies will then spend the day speaking directly with their elected representatives about increasing asthma transparency (SB262), requiring a prescription drug structure study (SB276), creating the Prescription Drug Affordability Board (SB378), importance of smart trauma designations (AB317), preventing surprise bills (AB 469), and supporting Governor Sisolak’s Patient Protection Commission.
Where:
Legislative Building
401 S. Carson Street
Carson City, NV 89701-4747
When: Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 9am
Who: Culinary Union members and patients who are fighting to stop price gouging in healthcare.
Why:
SB262 –
In 2017, Nevada was the first in the nation to adopt legislation providing transparency on the high cost of essential diabetes medications to start addressing affordable access to these critical medicines. Since then many other states have adopted transparency legislation.
SB262 will:
- Include asthma medications in existing transparency reporting requirements for essential diabetes medications.
- Require the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services to compile a public list of asthma-related drugs essential for treating asthma in Nevada.
- Require drug makers to provide an annual report on how costs are decided for asthma drugs - how prices are set and how much is spent on manufacturing, marketing, research, etc.
- Require pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to report on the rebates they negotiate and how much of the rebates these “middlemen” kept.
SB276 –
The quickly escalating price of prescription drugs is a key driver in unaffordable healthcare for Nevadans, for their health plans, and for state and local government entities. These prescription drug prices are increasing health care risks for patients that are unable to take their prescriptions correctly or at all. This bill can inform the policy Nevada should pursue to reduce the price of prescriptions and can be converted into a study of drug pricing to identify how to restructure the prescription drug system in Nevada.
SB276 will:
- Require Division of Health Care Financing and Policy of the Department of Health and Human Service [or Legislative Commission] to conduct a study concerning the role of rebates or reductions pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) negotiate with drug manufacturers in the cost of prescription drugs, and whether and how those rebate savings are benefitting consumers.
SB378 –
The Prescription Drug Affordability Board will consider a broad range of economic factors when setting appropriate payment rates for reviewed drugs, allowing pharmaceutical manufacturers the opportunity to justify existing drug costs. Once a fair payment is determined, the Prescription Drug Affordability Board sets an upper payment limit that applies to all purchasers and payor reimbursements in Nevada, ensuring lower costs benefit consumers.
SB378 will:
- Provide transparency on high-cost brand, biosimilar, and generic drugs and make them affordable at fair rates.
- Establish an independent Prescription Drug Affordability Board comprised of clinical experts and health-care economists who will identify prescription drugs with certain initial high prices or price increases that create “significant challenges” for Nevadans and the state’s healthcare system. It will look carefully at what Nevadans can afford, what the drug manufacturers need, and based on that, determine the maximum amount that is fair for Nevadans to pay for certain drugs.
- Examine the drug supply chain including the average discount and rebates the manufacturers are providing to pharmacy benefit managers and health plans.
AB317 –
Hospital trauma centers are vital to ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of residents and visitors. But a flood of trauma centers, that does not rely on a comprehensive needs assessment, will undermine our current system and drive up healthcare costs.
AB317 will:
- Require Nevada to identify trauma care shortage areas and determine the need for adding new trauma centers. Counties will then determine where to best locate those centers.
- Ensure Nevadans get the care they need when they need it, while protecting patients from expensive care the community doesn’t need.
AB469 –
Surprise medical bills can be thousands of dollars and a tremendous burden to patients and their families.
There are two main instances when surprise bills occur. The first is an emergency situation when patients, through no fault of their own, end up in a hospital not in their health insurance network. The second is when a patient is at a hospital in their network, but the hospital has an out-of-network provider involved in their care, like an ER physician, anesthesiologist, radiologist, pathologist, etc.
AB469 will:
- Protect patients by taking them out of the middle between providers and payers.
- Encourage providers and payers to be contracted with each other to keep responsible premiums and rates.
- Hold payers to a standard and prohibit out-of-network providers from charging excessive fees.
- Nevadans won’t have to think about if the hospital is in-network when they are in an emergency situation, and when they leave the hospital, they won’t have to face medical bankruptcy due to out-of-network price gouging.
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ABOUT THE CULINARY UNION:
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 280,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
The Culinary Union, through the Culinary Health Fund, is one of the largest healthcare consumers in the state. The Culinary Health Fund is sponsored by the Culinary Union and Las Vegas-area employers. It provides health insurance coverage for over 130,000 Nevadans, the Culinary Union’s members and their dependents.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages. We are proud to have helped over 18,000 immigrants become American citizens and new voters since 2001 through our affiliate, The Citizenship Project.
The Culinary Union has a diverse membership -- approximately 55% women, 54% Latinx, 19% White, 15% Asian, 10% Black, and less than 1% Indigenous Peoples — and consists of guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers. The Culinary Union has been fighting for fair wages, job security, and good health benefits for workers in Nevada for 84 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226