{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-speaks-with-mark-cuban-dr-smith-about-importance-of-increasing-transparency-to-lower-health-care-costs/", "Tuberville\u00a0Speaks with Mark Cuban, Dr. Smith About Importance of Increasing Transparency to Lower Health Care Costs", "2025-10-22", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke in a U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing about increasing transparency to lower health care costs.\n\nSen. Tuberville spoke with Mark Cuban, Co-Founder of Cost Plus Drugs, and Dr. Keith Smith, Co-Founder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma.\n\nRead Sen. Tuberville\u2019s remarks below or watch on YouTube or Rumble.\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cChairman, thanks all of you for being here today and talking about a subject that\u2019s very important to all Americans across the country. And as Dr. Smith said, [we have] an out-of-control health care system, which it is. Mr. Cuban, innovative companies like Cost Plus Drugs have already proven that bypassing traditional PBMs can deliver real savings at pharmacy counters. President Trump has announced \u2018Trump RX,\u2019 a new website, which will connect patients directly with the best prices. How might Trump RX and direct-to-patient programs improve affordability for patients? You\u2019re basic\u2014why are you doing this?\u201d\n\nCUBAN: \u201cYeah. I mean, we\u2019ll work with Trump RX, I mean, it\u2019s incredible. It\u2019s stupendous. It\u2019s like the most incredible program ever. And so, we\u2019re excited to offer them our API so that they\u2019ll be able to download our daily prices. So, when they go down, everybody benefits. Plus, I like what they\u2019re doing with the MFS. Because as I mentioned in my comments, our brand drugs are more expensive because PBMs are involved. And with Trump RX and the MFN program, that allows manufacturers to work around the PBMs and work directly to patients. So, I think it\u2019ll save seniors, it\u2019ll save everybody a lot of money.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cYou think this is the future?\u201d\n\nCUBAN: \u201cI don\u2019t think it solves the ultimate problem of how the system is designed. But I think it\u2019s something that we obviously agree on because that\u2019s what Cost Plus drugs is. We publish our entire price list every day.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cYour company posts drug prices with full cost breakdowns. How does this transparency help save patients money?\u201d\n\nCUBAN: \u201cI mean, you know, with CostPlusDrugs.com, any patient can just go look at their price for their medication. And, so, there\u2019s no uncertainty. But more importantly, by seeing our markup of only 15% and seeing our costs, that builds trust. I always tell everybody in our company that what we really sell in this industry is trust. And, so, I think that\u2019s what\u2019s really allowed us to grow so quickly.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cSo, if you sold Ozempic and somebody else went through PBMs, how much cost would they save?\u201d\n\nCUBAN: \u201cWell, if you look at what\u2019s happening now where the PBMs work with sponsors, they\u2019re typically being charged $1,300. And if you look at the direct-to-consumer programs, that are being put out there by Novo and Lilly, it\u2019s $499 or less and probably falling. So, there\u2019s already a significant difference. And the crazy part is that difference of $800 typically goes right into the pocket of the PBM who then decides how much they\u2019re gonna give to the employer. So, it\u2019s been\u2014it\u2019s a huge amount as of right now.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cThank you. Dr. Smith, the Surgery Center of Oklahoma has proven that real price transparency can lower costs and improve patient access, which is something we often hear discussed in the context of PBMs and prescription drugs. What inspired you to create this transparent surgical model and what parts of the traditional health care system\u2014much like PBMs in the drug space\u2014were you trying to get around?\u201d\n\nSMITH: \u201cWell, we started the Surgery Center of Oklahoma because, frankly, practicing in a big hospital as an anesthesiologist I\u2019d served as an accessory to a financial crime. Surgeons were also being denied the tools many of them required to appropriately treat patients due to the cost-cutting measures at hospitals trying to maximize the revenue. So, I didn\u2019t grow up in a home like that. I grew up [with], which is a golden rule, mutually beneficial exchange. And so, as a hospital-based physician, the only way I could escape that was to own and control my own facility [\u2026] where I was responsible to the patients, not just for the medical treatment, but also the way financially we dealt with them. So, the patient asked, you know, what can you do about this bill? My answer was everything, including not charging them. So, we\u2019re in a good position to be charitable on an individual basis, and that\u2019s really the answer. We started it because we wanted to be in control of the medical and the financial journey the patient had in their health care experience.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cYou know, [\u2026] some people argue that patients won\u2019t shop for care or that it\u2019s too complicated to understand. Do you think that is true and what savings have you seen for patients when prices are available?\u201d\n\nSMITH: \u201cWell, patients will not only shop for care, but they\u2019ll vote with their feet. Half the patients we see at Surgery Center of Oklahoma do not live in Oklahoma. We see patients from Europe and Africa, all over the United States. And self-funded employers see such an insane price difference between our prices and the local hospital where they\u2019re doing business [that] they wave all out-of-pocket for those employees and a companion to fly to the Surgery Center of Oklahoma to have their procedure. And not just us, but those who\u2019ve copied us. So, people will shop and they\u2019ll travel and furthermore, they\u2019ll hold our price up in front of their local hospital and tell them match this or I\u2019m going to Oklahoma City. We had a patient from Georgia that was gonna be charged $40,000 for a urologic procedure and our online price was $4,000 and the hospital matched our price because that would have been the second patient that month that came to Oklahoma City and they didn\u2019t wanna see that. The patient reached out to me later and said, \u2018You saved me $36,000 and you didn\u2019t even perform the surgery.\u2019 So, there is a market that is developing, it\u2019s a competitive market, it\u2019s driving prices down. It\u2019s driven prices down in Oklahoma City, I know, and quality goes up at the same time.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cThank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.\u201d\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-speaks-with-mark-cuban-dr-smith-about-importance-of-increasing-transparency-to-lower-health-care-costs/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4781700447201729, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}