In a statement issued by NCPA yesterday after the Supreme Court opted not to review the PBM regulation case Mulready v. PCMA, NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey said, "After the historic Rutledge v. PCMA unanimous Supreme Court decision in 2020, which allowed states to regulate PBMs, the big health insurance companies and their PBM lobby have been barnstorming the country putting up one legal challenge after another. Now the lower courts are divided, and the states are confused about what they can do to protect patients and small-business pharmacies from the unfair, anticompetitive practices of the PBMs, higher drug costs, and from PBMs overruling doctors' prescribing decisions."
Mulready v. PCMA originates from a lawsuit in Oklahoma by the PBM lobby against state Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready to prevent him from implementing aspects of a law regulating PBMs. A lower federal court upheld the law, but the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned it in a poorly reasoned decision that directly conflicts with the law of the land as outlined in Rutledge. You can read NCPA's full statement on the matter here.
