Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) kicked off the 2024 NCPA Annual Congressional Pharmacy Fly-In. As one of only two pharmacists in Congress, he continues to serve as a powerful advocate for pro-patient, pro-pharmacy legislation.
He told attendees that while government might be slow, we’re moving quickly against PBMs—and we’re succeeding.
“You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t care. We are winning the battle, and we cannot give up. I’m telling you we have wind in our sails. I’m encouraging all of you to please hang on. If it’s possible to hang on, please hang on,” he told a packed ballroom at a Hilton Alexandria Old Town ballroom.
“We’re making really good progress because of you and your efforts.”
In addition to cosponsoring other bills, Carter joined several of his colleagues to introduce the Drug Price Transparency in Medicaid Act (H.R. 1613), which pushes fair reimbursement to pharmacies and saves the government over $1 billion. It’s part of a bigger legislative package that was passed overwhelmingly by the full House of Representatives this winter. H.R. 1613 is a provision of H.R. 5378, the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, which is the result of a months-long effort to cobble together multiple bills from the Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and the Workforce committees. The measure aims to lower prescription drug costs and bring transparency to anticompetitive practices of pharmacy benefit managers. On the Senate side, it’s included in S. 2973, the Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act, which passed the Senate Finance Committee 26-1.
“Republicans and Democrats were in favor of it. Now it’s over in the Senate and you know your senators,” Carter reminded attendees. “So, if you see them today, tell them we need to pass this.”
Carter’s remarks come on the heels of Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)’s April 5 letter to congressional colleagues, which included drug pricing as a priority in the coming months, and weeks after NCPA members communicated an unprecedented 20,000 messages to their elected representatives. In the last two years alone, community pharmacists have also hosted 150 congressional visits to their pharmacies around the country.
“We’re at fourth and goal with inches to go, and your engagement with legislators has been phenomenal. The messages and in-person visits with legislators have been important,” said Anne Cassity, NCPA’s senior vice president of government affairs. “In the last year we’ve had four NCPA members testify in congressional hearings. That’s huge, and I don’t know of any other group in Washington with that kind of visibility.”
Cassity and her team have been working to advance other pieces of NCPA priority legislation on the Hill, which was the focus of Fly-In attendees as they traveled a few short miles to Capitol Hill to petition their congressional representatives for action. That legislation also includes the Neighborhood Options for Patients Buying Medicines (NO PBMs) Act (H.R. 5400/S. 2436), which requires CMS to define reasonable and relevant contract terms in Medicare. It passed the Senate Finance Committee unanimously as part of the Better Mental Health Care, Lower-Cost Drugs, and Extenders Act (S. 3430).
NCPA has been on the Hill even more than normal over the last few weeks to drum up support for these priority bills. During a March 14 press conference, NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey joined Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) as well as pharmacy owner and former NCPA president Michele Belcher and pharmacy owner Jack Holt to decry the oversized influence of PBMs. After the conference, Wyden and Crapo issued a letter to Finance Committee members reaffirming their commitment to enacting meaningful PBM reforms.
“We have data to show that 75 percent of all claims are being paid below NADAC plus $10,” said Ronna Hauser, NCPA’s senior vice president of policy and pharmacy affairs, during the fly-in. “Who can tell CMS what to do? Congress and the White House, so today we’re going to both—we’re going to the Hill and NCPA leadership is going to the White House .”
It’s not the first time we’ve been at the White House this year, either. On March 4, two NCPA pharmacy owners participated in a special White House roundtable discussion on lowering health care costs, with a special emphasis on addressing pharma "middlemen" in the process. Dared Price, an NCPA board member and pharmacist from Winfield, Kan., addressed PBMs and vertical integration in his remarks, and Chichi Ilonzo Momah, a pharmacist and owner of Springfield Pharmacy in Delaware County, Penn., raised the issue of shrinking prescription reimbursements.
To keep the momentum going this month, Cassity and Hoey reminded attendees yesterday in Alexandria that the fight must continue because the stakes have never been higher. They cheered Hoey’s remark, “This is the most important fly-in ever.”
“Last year,” said Hoey, “America lost one independent pharmacy each day, and that trend has continued in 2024. You know the behemoth corporations that put profits before patients. Being paid less than what it costs you to provide a drug is neither reasonable nor relevant. The message this year is simple: get PBM reform done and get it done now.”
Coverage of Fly-In continues at #NCPAontheHill! Head there now on social media to see what people have been saying and check out candid photos from Hill visits.
