Show-Me State Times

U.S. Senators Josh Hawley and Elizabeth Warren have introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at addressing the influence of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) in the pharmaceutical industry. The bill seeks to prevent PBMs from owning pharmacies, a practice critics say inflates prescription drug costs.

Senator Hawley emphasized the detrimental impact of insurance monopolies on healthcare, stating, "The insurance monopolies are ruining American health care. Patients and independent pharmacies are paying the price. This legislation will stop the insurance companies and PBMs from gobbling up even more of American health care and charging American families more and more for less."

Senator Warren highlighted concerns about market manipulation by PBMs: "PBMs have manipulated the market to enrich themselves — hiking up drug costs, cheating employers, and driving small pharmacies out of business. My new bipartisan bill will untangle these conflicts of interest by reining in these middlemen."

The proposed Patients Before Monopolies (PBM) Act outlines several key measures:

- It would prohibit a parent company of a PBM or an insurer from owning a pharmacy business.

- Companies violating this rule would be required to divest their pharmacy business within three years.

- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Health and Human Services, Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and state attorneys general would be empowered to order violators to divest their pharmacy businesses and disgorge any revenue earned during the violation period.

- Disgorged revenue would be distributed by the FTC to affected communities, including consumers overcharged at vertically integrated pharmacies.

- All divestitures must be reported to the FTC, which would also review all divestitures and subsequent acquisitions to safeguard competition, financial viability, and public interest.

Further details can be found in the full text of the bill.