2 days ago
Former federal regulator leading new HPC pharma office
BOSTON (SHNS) – A pair of new state health care oversight offices have 'hit the ground running' since being established in a January law, and one is led by a former federal regulator with experience investigating pharmacy benefit managers, officials said Thursday.
The Health Policy Commission is now home to an Office of Pharmaceutical Policy and Analysis, which officials shorten as OPPA, and an Office of Health Resource Planning, or OHRP.
Lawmakers tasked the pharmaceutical office with examining spending data and crafting recommendations on how Massachusetts should handle the prescription drug industry, which policymakers have targeted for reforms over its status as a major driver of rising health care costs.
Matthew Frank started as OPPA's director Monday after five years working for the Federal Trade Commission. He also previously worked in the antitrust division at the Massachusetts attorney general's office.
'He did extraordinary and deeply relevant work at the FTC,' HPC Deputy Executive Director Coleen Elstermeyer said a meeting Thursday. 'In that role, he led some investigations into [pharmacy benefit managers], their market practices, their behaviors that were concerning and anti-competitive. He led a group of attorneys and economists on an industry study of PBMs as well, and he's also done some work looking at manufacturers who were allegedly, I would say, manipulating patent law to avoid having their drugs become eligible for generics.'
The HPC also promoted internally to fill the other new office, tapping Kara Vidal — who previously led the agency's work on cost-controlling performance improvement plans — as director of OHRP.
'This office is charged with developing a state health plan, looking at the supply of services — where do we have too much? Where do we have too little? How does it align with patient need, community need?' Elstermeyer said.
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