The National Community Pharmacists Association hailed the Senate Judiciary Committee for its decision to greenlight two bills targeting pharmacy benefit managers.
On Feb. 16, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation evaluated the PBM Transparency Act, and "reports indicate that a vote will follow in the coming weeks," the NCPA said. The organization also praised the Senate's progress on the Prescription Pricing for the People Act, another bill aimed at the drug-pricing middlemen who work between payers and drug companies.
"The higher prescription drug costs go, the higher PBM profits go," NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey said in a news release. "PBMs accomplish this using maneuvers we have some degree of insight into — like spread-pricing, steering patients to pharmacies they own or are affiliated with, retroactive reimbursement clawbacks, or through a sneaky system of price concessions — but also through contracting tricks, rebates and other deceptive tactics that policymakers haven't yet been able to truly scrutinize."
Mr. Hoey said the organization is hopeful about these recent moves. The pharma industry is also closely watching four other pharma-related bills steadily moving along in the Senate.