CHICAGO — Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a bipartisan coalition of 39 attorneys general, sent a letter to congressional leadership urging them to pass an act that would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from owning or operating pharmacies.
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“PBMs have opted to focus on driving up their own profits at the expense of patients,” Raoul said. “Their control of an outsized share of the market has led to patients having fewer choices and paying higher costs. I join my fellow attorneys general in calling on Congress to reign in PBMs, and I will continue to advocate for reforms that ensure prescription pricing is transparent and reduce the financial burden on patients.”
PBMs are third-party administrators of prescription drug programs for health plans. Over the past few decades, horizontal consolidation and vertical integration have transformed PBMs from useful administrative service providers into market-dominating behemoths that control the industry.
The coalition’s letter urges Congress to take action and protect consumers by enacting a law prohibiting PBMs or their parent companies from owning a pharmacy. The top six PBMs operate affiliated pharmacies, while five of the top six are also a part of parent conglomerates that operate insurance companies and health care clinics. PBMs – through their ownership of affiliated pharmacies – are contracting with and have power over their own pharmacies’ competition. The PBMs then use their roles as intermediaries to exert this power in ways that harm independent pharmacies, forcing those small businesses to accept contractual terms that are confusing, unfair, arbitrary and harmful.
Joining Raoul in sending the bipartisan letter are the attorneys general of Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
