Amgen pushes back on charges of special deal in 'fiscal cliff' bill

Drug maker Amgen is defending a change in Medicare payments included in the recent fiscal-cliff deal and pushing back against a new bill to repeal that change.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced a bill Wednesday to repeal a delay in Medicare price controls for a class of drugs for kidney dialysis patients. The New York Times reported that Amgen was the only company to lobby for the change.

But the Government Accountability Office — Congress's nonpartisan investigative arm — had also recommended the delay in price controls, Amgen said.

“Amgen supports the current provision to delay including oral-only medications in the Medicare dialysis prospective payment system. Including oral-only medications in the payment system at the same time that the bundle is being rebased would have been disruptive to quality patient care," the company said in a statement in response to Welch's legislation.

In a response to the Times story, Amgen said Congress had previously decided to exclude orally administered dialysis medications, citing a lack of data about how the drugs are used and reimbursed.

"A two-year delay provides [Medicare] with the time needed to develop quality metrics and further develop their data systems — both things pivotal to providing quality patient care," Amgen said.

---