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ARLINGTON, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) continues to press Congress for pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform at the federal level.
In a statement for a U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust hearing today on the role of PBM middlemen, NACDS urged that the PBM reforms in Medicare, Medicaid and the commercial market — which now enjoy bipartisan and bicameral consensus — must be considered “must-pass” legislation in the 118th Congress. These needed reforms would help confront the anticompetitive and predatory PBM tactics that harm Americans, pharmacies, taxpayers, employers and communities.
NACDS said in the September 11 comment letter, “Every day that is allowed to pass without comprehensive PBM reform is another day that market-dominant PBMs are allowed to sustain and worsen their tactics. This year, the situation has deteriorated further. Pharmacies are experiencing rapidly decreasing Medicare Part D pharmacy reimbursements that are taking many pharmacies even further below cost for the prescriptions that they fill every day. This untenable situation of decreasing reimbursement, combined with lingering pharmacy direct and indirect remuneration (DIR) fees, is putting patient access and pharmacies in jeopardy.”
NACDS continued, saying, “Pharmacies and pharmacists are firmly united across all practice settings on next steps for bipartisan and bicameral PBM reform to help curb the middlemen’s pharmaceutical benefit manipulation. It is past time for action.
“NACDS and collaborating pharmacy organizations have worked together to call attention to needed reforms. While we understand that the breadth of these reforms may extend outside this Subcommittee’s jurisdiction, it is vitally important for Congress to hear consistently what is needed and expected to protect Americans and their pharmacies.”
This week, NACDS is airing prominently its latest PBM reform ad — “Time Is Now” — calling on the U.S. Congress to enact this year real reforms across all markets. The seven-figure ad campaign debuted in June — prior to the first Presidential debate.
Throughout the month of August, NACDS-member pharmacies welcomed members of Congress to their home districts to discuss first-hand the urgent need for reform, and the impact of “pharmaceutical benefit manipulation” on their constituents.
The U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee is yet another Congressional panel keeping the spotlight on the issue of PBM reform, at a critical time for pharmacy and for Americans.
In July, the U.S. House Oversight and Accountability Committee continued its investigation of the role of market-dominant PBMs in escalating Americans’ prescription drug costs; in diminishing Americans’ access to the medications prescribed by their doctors; in blocking Americans’ access to their convenient and trusted pharmacies; and in forcing pharmacies out of business. Read more …
Earlier that month, the Federal Trade Commission released an interim staff report on the harmful tactics of PBMs — describing the PBMs’ tactics as “imposing unfair, arbitrary, and harmful contractual terms” on pharmacies’ with devastating effects on pharmacies and on communities. Read more …
NACDS continues to work at the federal and state levels to confront PBM practices that force patients and others to pay more for their medicines, that limit patients’ access to their pharmacist, that restrict patients’ access to the medicines right for them, and that jeopardize the pharmacies on which patients rely. Read more …
