NCPA, 207 stakeholders support bipartisan Senate bill empowering FTC action against PBMs
A group of 207 organizations, including the National Community Pharmacists Association, that strongly support the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act (S. 4293) are urging Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to quickly bring it for a vote in the full Senate.
The bill was introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in May and passed the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in June.
[Read more: NCPA survey finds patients disapprove of PBMs]
“We applaud the recent efforts of the Commerce Committee to advance S. 4293 on a bipartisan basis as this legislation would bring needed transparency to and ultimately stop PBM-insurers’ unjust and deceptive practices, especially as the three largest PBM insurers now control at least 80% of the market,” the organizations wrote in a letter sent Monday. “We hope the full Senate will soon take up this legislation to empower the FTC to bring enforcement actions against the consolidated PBM-insurer industry and their anticompetitive practices, including spread pricing and clawbacks.”
[Read more: NCPA files lawsuit against HHA to eliminate pharmacy DIR]
The PBM Transparency Act empowers the Federal Trade Commission to increase drug pricing transparency and hold PBMs accountable for unfair and deceptive practices that drive up the costs of prescription drugs at the expense of consumers. It would ban deceptive unfair pricing schemes like spread pricing and prohibit arbitrary clawbacks of payments made to pharmacies. It also includes provisions to allow other state officials to bring action to enforce the law if the state attorney general lacks jurisdiction to do so, and allow for a Government Accountability Office study of PBM practices.
Click here for the stakeholder letter, which was signed by a diverse group that includes business organizations, patient and consumer groups, and pharmacy and physician stakeholders.