Alexandria, VA (September 8, 2025)—The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) sent a letter today to House and Senate leadership on behalf of 134 organizations representing patient groups, health care providers, employers, business groups and union workers urging them to pass PBM reform before the end of the year.
"The American public is tired of losing access to their local health care providers and of paying too much out-of-pocket for the medicines they need," said the groups. Pharmacists are some of the most accessible and trusted health care professionals in America, with patients—particularly in rural and underserved communities—reliant on their training and expertise."
The groups are asking House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to pass the PBM Reform Act (H.R. 4317) and two companion bills in the Senate, the Protecting Pharmacies in Medicaid Act (S. 927), and the Patients Before Middlemen Act (S. 882).
"All of these measures have bipartisan support in both houses," said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey. "Everyone in Washington sees what's happening and everyone outside the beltway is feeling the pain from PBM business practices. Everyone knows the PBMs are overcharging taxpayers, driving up drug prices, and reducing patient access to life-saving drugs. We're very proud to have worked with all these groups to make it unmistakably clear to Congress that these reforms can be delayed no longer."
The bills would ban spread pricing in Medicaid, an opaque practice that allows PBMs to overcharge state prescription programs billions of dollars. They would require PBM contracts with pharmacies in Medicare Part D to include reasonable and relevant terms, so PBMs can't continue their anti-competitive practices of paying pharmacies below their cost to buy the drug and applying one-sided performance standards that are vaguely written and inconsistently applied. The bills would also delink drug prices in Medicare Part D from PBM revenues and mandate that negotiated savings between insurance plans and drug makers be passed on directly to employers, workers, and their families. Finally, the legislation promotes price transparency for employer health plans, with regular detailed data reporting on prescription drug plan spending.
"These all support the same underlying goal—to address the PBMs anti-competitive, anti-consumer practices," say the groups. "These provisions received overwhelming support in both parties and in both chambers of Congress. By enacting these measures, you can deliver relief to patients and families at their local pharmacy counter, employers facing continued increases in health care costs, and taxpayers who are currently overpaying for government-provided benefit programs."
The groups note in the letter that, according to the Federal Trade Commission, PBMs raked in more than $7 billion in revenues between 2017 and 2022 on up charging specialty generic drugs alone, while one in three retail pharmacies have closed since 2010 further expanding the number of people now living in pharmacy deserts.
"We urge you to prioritize PBM reform this fall and ensure these bipartisan efforts are enacted into law without delay," says the letter. "Immediate action is needed to address these harmful practices. Americans deserve and expect protection from inflated prescription drug costs, from forced pharmacy closures, and from barriers to their pharmacy of choice that result from PBM tactics."
For more information about NCPA, please visit www.ncpa.org.
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