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THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 23. 2021 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 7A
Tater Patch Review
Sex Please We’re Sixty
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By Heather Giambra
Please. Being 60 is not the
only reason to see this hilari
ous Tater Patch production.
You’ll be grinning ear to ear
when you sit in the new
comfy seats of the Tater
Patch Theater and watch the
shenanigans of these young-
at-heart actors perform in Sex
Please We ’re Sixty. A magic
pill created by a desperate
paramour becomes a science
experiment in a room full of
heartthrobs and hormones.
Directed by Audrey
Kirsten, Nick Coleman, and
Jan Simpson the setting is
The Rose Cottage Bed and
Breakfast located somewhere
in New England and run by
the proper Mrs. Stancliffe,
(Phyllis Ellis). She does her
best to run the B&B in a dig
nified manner but is upended
by her neighbor, Bud Davis
aka Budley Studley Do-right,
(Steve Lewis) and she is pur
sued by her long standing
and long suffering admirer,
Henry Mitchell, (Alex
Nawrocki.)
Laughter from the begin
ning to the end, you must see
the crazy antics of Bud and
three lady guests who have
come to the Inn for various
reasons. Victoria Ambrose, a
romantic novelist, has come
Alex Nawrocki as Henry Mitchell, left, and Steve Lewis
as Bud Davis on stage in the latest from the Tater Patch
Players.
to find the ending to her latest
novel but isn’t feeling the ro
mance. Kerry Rosewall plays
Victoria, who finally gets the
feeling she needs but in unex
pected ways. Hillary Hudson
arrives at the special request
of her former associate but
doesn’t know why. Played by
Phyllis Zerkle, a returning
Tater in her second produc
tion this year, fills the charac
ter well by combining
business with pleasure,
(wink, wink). And knitting
the whole plot together is the
very Southern and charming,
Charmaine Beauregard, who
is determined to rekindle her
connection to Bud the Stud.
Played by Suellen Reitz in
her second time with Tater
Patch, she really brings her
character to life. Meanwhile,
poor Henry, through thick
and thin tries valiantly to win
over the object of his affec
tion and nearly drowns in
tears and kisses.
The laughter and the
twists this play takes will
keep the audience empathetic
to the characters’ dilemmas
while the laughter grows.
Good thing the new seats are
so comfy because you’ll be
squirming in them. Only one
weekend left for this produc
tion. Be sure to come Friday
or Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
or to the Sunday matinee at 2
p.m. Come early for best
seating. There are conces
sions with soft drinks, beer,
wine, popcorn and candy. Be
sure to acquire a new Tater
Patch inscribed glass for only
$5. Stock up and stock your
cabinet.
A special thank you to
Fatz Cafe, Marco’s Pizza, Se
quoyah Water, and Red Bean
Harvest (look for the
coupon). They keep the crew
fed during production times
and are greatly appreciated.
Don’t miss this hilarious
show.
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By Tim Darnell
Staff Writer
Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA - Drug prices
and who controls them could
be back before the General
Assembly this winter, as con
sumer advocates and phar
macy benefit managers
remain at odds over issues
such as drug price trans
parency.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed
legislation last year tighten
ing rules on third-party com
panies that play a role in
negotiating pharmaceutical
drug prices between insurers
and local pharmacies in
Georgia.
The bill Kemp signed into
law requires companies
called pharmacy benefits
managers (PBMs) to set drag
prices within a national aver
age, a move aimed at reining
in excessively high prescrip
tion prices.
PBMs act as go-betweens
for prescribers and insurance
companies that contract with
health insurers to negotiate
lower drag prices for pa
tients. But critics have long
accused them of muddying
the process, prompting in
creases in drag prices and de
lays in filling prescriptions.
Now, pharmacies such as
CVS are worried Georgia
lawmakers, when they recon
vene in January, may take
further action on drag pric
ing.
“We are aware of efforts
by some legislators to further
explore drag pricing trans
parency,” said Leanne Gas-
saway, vice president of state
government affairs at CVS
Health. “Given the state’s en
actment of PBM-related leg
islation nearly every year
over the past decade, we
would welcome the legisla
ture to closely examine drag
manufacturers’ role in drag
pricing, including a notable
lack of transparency in set
ting and increasing list
prices.”
Ryan Hamilton, an associ
ate professor at Emory
Goizueta Business School,
said price transparency typi
cally causes drag prices to
fall.
“The easier it is for cus
tomers to acquire price infor
mation, the greater the need
for manufacturers to com
pete,” he said. “But the pre
scription pharmaceutical
industry in the U.S. is so
heavily regulated, those gen
eral rales may not apply.”
Hamilton said PBMs
serve as an interface between
drag manufacturers and phar
macies.
“Any measures to cut out
middlemen from the equation
are naturally going to cause
protests,” he said.
“PBMs support and prac
tice actionable transparency
that enables patients, their
physicians, and health plan
sponsors in Georgia to make
informed decisions on how
best to manage prescription
drag costs and empowers
Georgia’s policymakers with
the information they need to
make the right policy deci
sions to lower drag costs for
all patients,” said the Phar
maceutical Care Manage
ment Association, an
organization which repre
sents PBMs. “In Georgia,
PBMs will save health plan
sponsors and patients nearly
$30 billion on prescription
drag costs.”
Laura Colbert, executive
director of Georgians for a
Healthy Future, agreed the is
sues of drag prices and trans
parency, coupled with the
role PBMs play in the equa
tion, will come up again in
January.
“Discussions over PBMs
have been going on for sev
eral years, and the legislature
seems pretty fired up over
continuing that effort,” Col
bert said, explaining that
PBMs were formed to help
health insurers negotiate bet
ter deals with pharmaceutical
manufacturers, and then pass
those savings along to con
sumers.
“But realistically, it’s hard
to know if those savings are
actually being passed along,”
Colbert said. “Pharmacies
and health insurers are buy
ing up PBMs, and it’s be
come especially hard to see
where savings are being ac
cumulated.”
One bill that will defi
nitely carry over into January
is House Bill 164, entitled the
Prescription Drag Consumer
Financial Protection Act. It
would require health insurers
to pass along no less than
80% of all prescription drag
rebates to their enrollees.
“That 80% is consistent
with what the Affordable
Care Act requires,” Colbert
said.
“We’ve been having some
very fruitful discussions and
we’re anticipating a very ac
tive legislative session,” said
Gassaway, who is tackling a
tough public relations chal
lenge: convincing lawmakers
and their constituents that
making drag prices openly
and readily available to the
general public will, in fact,
lead to higher drag prices.
“If we just put the prices
out in the public domain, that
information will be used to
further manipulate the mar
ket,” she said. “We are not
opposed to showing our
clients how much we save
them on drags. We try to
push that price down but put
ting a specific discount out
into the public domain will
only cause prices to rise.
“We have some other,
great ideas on how to make
that information available to
patients in more useful
ways.”
One of CVS Health’s
ideas is making drag prices
available, in real time, to doc
tors when they’re prescribing
medications. “We have the
ability to make that informa
tion available at the physi
cians’ fingertips, to determine
the best prices,” Gassaway
said. “That kind of informa
tion - such as cost-sharing al
ternatives - would be really
helpful to patients.”
Gassaway touts CVS’
member-specific benefit in
formation, which includes
plan information, deductibles
and other data that, the com
pany said, lets health-care
providers and CVS members
know if a specific drag is
covered as well as the mem
ber’s cost.
CVS said Georgia has
some of the strictest PBM
laws in the country. PBMs
are now required to publicly
report how close to a national
average many health plans’
drag prices were negotiated.
The state is also requiring
PBMs to give state officials
some confidential informa
tion on rebates and other ne
gotiating tools.
PBMs are also now re
quired to submit to new au
dits by the state Department
of Community Health as well
as requirements for publish
ing data on prescription
prices online. They are also
required to offer full rebates
to health plans that are typi
cally given by drag makers,
rather than pocketing a por
tion.
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