On Tuesday, NCPA, the American Pharmacists Association, and the Tennessee Pharmacists Association filed a joint amicus brief in a federal court in support of a 2021 Tennessee law regulating PBMs after a federal court enjoined the law. The brief argues that without regulation, PBMs have engaged in harmful practices and urges the court to uphold Tennessee’s right to regulate PBMs.
Tennessee is defending a law that banned PBMs from engaging in patient steering and excluding pharmacies from preferred networks. A federal court issued an injunction against the law after McKee Foods, which makes baked goods like Little Debbie snacks, challenged it, arguing that the Tennessee law was preempted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The case is now before the federal Sixth District Court of Appeals, where NCPA, the APhA, and TPA filed the brief.
“PBMs routinely steer patients to their own affiliated pharmacies, and they routinely reimburse their own affiliated pharmacies more than they reimburse their competitors, which are often small, family-run, independent pharmacies,” said NCPA General Counsel Matthew Seiler. “Nearly every state in the country has enacted, or is trying to enact, PBM reform to curb these abuses. Patients in Tennessee should have access to the health care providers they trust.”
For more information read our press release here.
