Six senators introduced a new bill targeted at shrinking the pharmacy benefit manager industry's influence, which adds to the stack of at least seven similar bills wading through Congress.
The new proposed legislation, titled Patients Before Middlemen Act, looks to stop PBMs from being paid based on a drug's list price.
"By tying administrative fees, rebate-based compensation, and other payments to a percentage of list price, current arrangements incentivize increases in sticker prices, harming patients at the pharmacy counter," said a June 14 news release from the Senate Committee on Finance.
If passed, the act would require PBMs to pay excess designated service fees to the secretary of state.