Dear Colleague,
That was a quote from Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) talking about PBMs during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, part of an extraordinary week in Washington. (Be sure to listen to all of Sen. Tester’s colorful comments about PBMs around 1:03). There was just one exception: one witness speaking for the PBMs and sympathetic remarks from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
More on an extraordinary hearing later. If there was ever any doubt that the PBMs are feeling the heat from NCPA’s decades-long work, now joined by consumers, employers, physicians, and other pharmacy groups, that doubt was removed this week. On Tuesday there were no less than three pro-PBM pieces that were released inside the D.C. beltway. One was from PCMA, spinning a tale about the stability of the independent pharmacy market, conflating the amazing work by independent pharmacies during the pandemic with store counts not going down for a year and ignoring the growth of pharmacy deserts. Another, in the form of an op-ed by a former Trump campaign official, Michael Glassner, in the Washington Times shilling for the PBMs and going out of his way to take a shot at NCPA’s work on behalf of community pharmacies. And, in an amazing coincidence, also on Tuesday, The Hill published an op-ed from a former member of Congress-turned-health insurance lobbyist, Jason Altmire, titled, Who Keeps Drug Costs Affordable? Pharmacy Benefit Managers. He apparently wrote the editorial with a straight face while citing a study from 1998. No word on why he didn’t also cite pre-historic caveman drawings depicting a flat earth.
The Senate hearing was about the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act (S. 127), introduced by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which would bring transparency into PBM business practices and prohibit unfair or deceptive PBM conduct that drives up costs for consumers.
Ryan Oftebro, a pharmacy owner and longtime NCPA member from the Seattle area, described the destructive impact of PBM business practices on pharmacies and health care options for patients. A University of Southern California researcher and an oncologist from Texas also effectively testified about the negative impact of PBMs. Many of the questions from senators were directed at Ryan. “Independent pharmacy,” “community pharmacy,” or “small, rural pharmacies” were how the senators termed the pharmacies they were most concerned about.
All three pieces of PBM propaganda hitting on the same day and, in another amazing coincidence, just two days before the PBM roasting in the Senate hearing is just the latest sign of giant PBMs feeling heat. And, taking shots directly at NCPA goes to show that NCPA’s longtime advocacy for PBM transparency is getting to them.
I looked at what NCPA was talking about in 1998. You guessed it. Managed care in the form of PBMs. In fact, the May 1998 issue of NCPA’s America’s Pharmacist® featured then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who spoke at NCPA’s Congressional Pharmacy Fly-In that year. Gingrich said managed care today is “a concentration of power” that Congress will reform over the next few years in several pieces of legislation.
Well, he got half of that statement right. Congress still needs to take meaningful action to regulate PBMs. This year there will be legislation to address PBM bad practices. PBMs are feeling the heat. You know what that means: it’s time to make it even hotter, independent pharmacies. Ask your senators to support PBM regulation legislation starting with the PBM Transparency Act.
Best,
B. Douglas Hoey, Pharmacist, MBA
NCPA CEO
