Lawmakers amp up calls for PBM reforms to be included in next week’s funding package

Lead­ers on the Sen­ate Fi­nance Com­mit­tee are mak­ing a push to pass re­forms to phar­ma­cy ben­e­fit man­agers, which have had a tar­get on their backs as Con­gress inch­es up to a March 22 dead­line to clear the next round of ap­pro­pri­a­tions bills.

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mike Crapo (R-ID), who helm the Sen­ate Fi­nance Com­mit­tee, held a press con­fer­ence Thurs­day to tout their pro­posed PBM re­forms and hear from pa­tients and in­de­pen­dent phar­ma­cists who sup­port the leg­is­la­tion. The uni­fied push comes as Con­gress is now tasked with pass­ing the next set of ap­pro­pri­a­tions pack­ages by next Fri­day, af­ter the first round passed ear­li­er this month didn’t in­clude any PBM re­forms.

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