Government Pressure on PBMs Mounts
Jeff Woldt of Chain Drug Review provides insights about PBMs being “subject to intense scrutiny from legislators and regulators at the federal and state levels.” He said in a June 12 editorial: “It appears that a day of reckoning for pharmacy benefits managers has arrived.”
“Health care should ultimately be about the patient; all discussions should start at that point and move backward through the continuum of care. Viewed through that lens, stakeholders will improve the odds of crafting a revamped system that fairly compensates community pharmacies.”
Chambers Vital as Governments Rein in Pharmaceutical Middlemen
Chamber Executive magazine is a publication of the Chamber of Commerce Executives (AACE), which serves more than 9,000 leaders from 1,300 chambers of commerce. The combined membership of ACCE in the United States exceeds 1.2 million businesses.
This joint article by NACDS President and CEO Steven C. Anderson and National Community Pharmacists Association CEO B. Douglas Hoey highlights the impact of PBMs on patients, businesses, employees, taxpayers, communities, and pharmacies and how important it is for state and local chambers to engage while directly confronting the spurious claims of PBMs that reform efforts would harm employers and employees.
“As trusted healthcare destinations and valued employers, our members know first-hand the importance of PBM reform for patients, businesses, employees, taxpayers, communities and pharmacies,” Anderson and Hoey state.
Anderson and Hoey note that federal and state governments have unique roles to play to ensure comprehensive and definitive reform across all payer segments, and that bipartisan momentum behind such reform is strong and ever-growing.
NACDS Airs Ad Promoting NC Pro-Patient PBM Reform Bill
Inside Health Policy highlighted the NACDS “#FreeClaire: PBM Reform Now” ad that is aimed at getting a PBM reform bill passed in North Carolina. NACDS’ visible engagement directly confronts the inaccuracy of some PBMs’ statements in the media that only independent pharmacies support PBM reform legislation in that state.
This article states: “The state is one of dozens where legislators are pushing to rein in pharmacy benefit manager practices that are seen as contributing to high prescription drug prices, and the state-level moves come as key committees on Capitol Hill are also pursuing bipartisan PBM reforms that are backed by chain drug stores and community pharmacies.”
