Lawmakers to intro bill to make health insurers divest pharmacies
A bipartisan group of lawmakers are reportedly set to introduce legislation to break up pharmacy-benefit managers, per a Wall Street Journal report.
A Senate bill, sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), would force the companies that own health insurers or PBMs to divest their pharmacy businesses within three years.
A companion bill, which sponsors say draws on a history of government prohibitions on joint ownership within industries, also was scheduled to be introduced in the House on Wednesday, the report said.
[Read more: NACDS CEO reiterates association’s fight against PBMs, makes push for provider status]
“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 the legislation “will stop the insurance companies and PBMs from gobbling up even more of American healthcare and charging American families more and more for less.”
With Congress closing out its session, it is unlikely the bills could get enacted into law in this Congress, the report noted, adding that "backers are trying to lay the groundwork for passage next year."
[Read more: NACDS to 118th Congress: Now, let’s get PBM reform done]
The House version of the bill, known as the Patients Before Monopolies Act, is sponsored by Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D., Mass.) and Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R., Tenn.). The two previously partnered on a bill aimed at PBMs’ methods of steering patients to affiliated pharmacies.
The senators said precedent for the government prohibiting joint ownership within industries includes what is called the Volcker rule, a part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law that stopped banks from doing proprietary trading, per the report.