House, Senate committees mark up PBM bills as momentum for reform mounts

Law­mak­ers have spent the spring and sum­mer chip­ping away at re­forms to phar­ma­cy ben­e­fit man­agers — the mid­dle­men en­ti­ties that in­sur­ance com­pa­nies hire to ne­go­ti­ate drug prices with phar­ma com­pa­nies — and sev­er­al key pieces of bi­par­ti­san leg­is­la­tion are mak­ing their way through Con­gress this week.

The House Ways and Means Com­mit­tee and the Sen­ate Fi­nance Com­mit­tee marked up bills on Wednes­day that would re­quire more trans­paren­cy from PBMs on drug pric­ing as part of an ef­fort to hold the en­ti­ties ac­count­able and low­er over­all drug costs for pa­tients. The PBM lob­by­ing group said it dis­agrees with law­mak­ers that the leg­is­la­tion would re­duce costs for pa­tients and could in­stead lead to cuts in phar­ma­cy ben­e­fits.

To read Endpoints News become a free subscriber

Unlock this article instantly, along with access to limited free monthly articles and our suite of newsletters

SIGN UP LOG IN