A bipartisan group of lawmakers said Wednesday that they seek to lower drug costs by prohibiting joint ownership of pharmacy-benefit managers (PBM) and pharmacies.
The bill, called the Patients Before Monopolies Act, is sponsored by Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. Warren said that PBMs negotiate drug prices between pharmacies, insurers and drugmakers.
“PBMs have manipulated the market to enrich themselves—hiking up drug costs, cheating employers, and driving small pharmacies out of business,” Warren said. “My new bipartisan bill will untangle these conflicts of interest by reining in these middlemen.”
Hawley said that “insurance monopolies are ruining American health care.”
“Patients and independent pharmacies are paying the price. This legislation will stop the insurance companies and PBMs from gobbling up even more of American health care and charging American families more and more for less,” Hawley said.
Supporters say the bill would address the drug prices by prohibiting a parent company of a PBM or an insurer from owning a pharmacy business, requiring that a parent company in violation of the PBM Act divest its pharmacy business within three years. This would enable the different departments to issue orders requiring violators of the PBM Act to divest its pharmacy business and disgorge any revenue received during the period of such violation. Several groups have expressed support for the bill. They include the American Economic Liberties Project, the National Community Pharmacists Association, the American Pharmacy Cooperative Inc., Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency, Patients Rising, and AffirmedRx.
“Giant PBMs and insurers owning their own pharmacies has driven independent pharmacies out of business and reduced patient access to quality care. The Patients Before Monopolies Act addresses the root cause of this problem — consolidated market power — by eliminating the inherent conflicts of interest within the big three PBM business model,” said Morgan Harper, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, in a statement.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/PBS North Carolina Channel)
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