PBMs Catch Heat from Both Parties in US Senate Finance Committee Hearings

US Senators from both sides of the aisle put forward several ideas on how to reform the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) industry, which negotiates drug prices and coverage decisions between pharma, payers, and pharmacies. Although the senators acknowledged that PBMs cut prices for many patients, they lambasted the industry’s lack of transparency and practices that raise costs for older adults enrolled in Medicare part D.

According to Zachary Brennan, “In addition to finance committee work, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation last week advanced a bill by a bipartisan 18-9 vote, after hearing testimony last February documenting how PBMs control several key areas of the drug distribution and payment system. The Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act, introduced by committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Grassley would make it unlawful for PBMs to charge more than what they reimburse a pharmacy, to claw back any reimbursements, or to charge fees or lower reimbursements to a pharmacy to offset reimbursement changes from the federal government.”

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(Source: Endpoints News, March 30^th, 2023)