Last week, NCPA President Michele Belcher, owner of Grants Pass Pharmacy in Grants Pass, Ore., explained to FTC Chair Lina Khan, two key lawmakers, and others how PBMs are gaming the system, harming patients, and driving local pharmacies out of business. At a roundtable discussion hosted by NCPA and the American Economic Liberties Project, Michele expressed NCPA members’ gratitude that Washington is looking seriously at the PBM threat. Also attending were Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), two of the strongest voices in Congress calling for PBM reform. “The PBMs offer take-it-or-leave it contracts that force pharmacists to choose between losing patients or losing money. They control access to insurance networks, steer patients to their own mail-order pharmacies, reimburse my pharmacy less than the cost of dispensing drugs, and then assess backdoor fees on my pharmacy based on confusing and arbitrary standards,” Belcher said. “As a result of these anticompetitive practices, independent community pharmacies are being forced out of business, patients are paying more for their medicine, and they are losing access to their preferred health care providers.”
NCPA
