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Lawmakers introduce bill to ban PBM-owned pharmacies

Bottles of prescription pills go through an automated packaging machine in a pharmacy plant.
Julio Cortez
/
AP
Bottles of prescription pills go through an automated packaging machine in a pharmacy plant.

Arkansas lawmakers want to increase regulations for pharmacy benefit managers. State Rep. Jeremiah Moore, R-Clarendon, filed House Bill 1150 Thursday. The bill would bar drug intermediaries from owning pharmacies in the state.

Speaking at the State Capitol Thursday, Moore said he wants Arkansas to lead a nationwide reform of PBM practices.

“For far too long, pharmacy benefit managers have rigged the system to enrich their own interests at the expense of the patient.” Moore said. “It is well documented by the Federal Trade Commission that PBMs are steering patients to their company-owned pharmacies by reimbursing their competitors, the neighborhood pharmacies, at rates below cost. It is crony capitalism at best and outright corruption at worst.”

Moore said the practices are forcing neighborhood pharmacies across the state to close. Moore said small pharmacies are continuing to take losses on patient sales, while pharmacies owned by PBM’s are receiving significantly higher reimbursement rates for prescriptions.

“The pharmacy benefit managers are currently benefiting no one but themselves,” Moore said. “If they had it their way, Arkansas patients would be forced to get their medications from either a mail-order pharmacy or a big box store such as CVS.”

Moore said this would be “untenable” for residents in a district like his, which he said has a dozen neighborhood pharmacies and no CVS throughout the district.

“Today we will take a step in setting the market straight by saying if you want to operate in Arkansas as a pharmacy benefit manager you must stay in your lane,” Moore said. “Leave the medication dispensing to the small businesses that actually care.”

Attorney General Tim Griffin also voiced support for the bill. Griffin said he has had to change pharmacists twice in recent years due to local pharmacies switching out of his insurance network.

Griffin said this issue is ongoing for Arkansans and veterans across the country. He said he is drafting a letter to Congress to ask them to prohibit PBM’s from owning retail pharmacies.

Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, co-sponsored HB1150. Hammer said the bill will address PBMs that have monopolized systems, but will not disrupt PBMs that are trying to be “good partners” in the healthcare system.

Hammer said it was time for lawmakers to intervene and “level the playing field.”

“We want access to care for all people in all four corners of our state and everyone in between.” Hammer said. “If we look 20 years down the road, if we don’t do something today, a lot of these people standing behind me will not be here. And then who's going to take care of our families, and who's going to be there after hours and take care of the needs of those that we love?”

State Rep. Brandon Achor, R-Maumelle, owns an independent pharmacy and also spoke in favor of the regulations.

“I see and I feel the abuse of vertically integrated healthcare on a daily basis,” he said. “The intentional and systemic violations of Arkansas law for almost a decade has wrought the entire healthcare system from employer payers, to providers, to patients.”

Achor said he was honored to help “tip the first domino” in a series of pharmacy reforms across the state.

Loretta Boesing is the founder of advocacy group Unite for Safe Medications. She spoke in favor of PBM reforms, adding her son is a transplant recipient who needs medication every 12 hours to survive. She said PBMs have caused drug prices to rise to unaffordable and unsustainable levels.

“This is not just a financial issue,” Boesing said, “It’s an issue of life and death.”

Boesing started a petition to garner support for the legislation. She said it’s an important step to ensuring better care for all patients.

John Vincent, the CEO of Arkansas Pharmacists’ association, said Arkansas has been a leader in healthcare reform over the last decade. He noted the bill would ban the around 35 PBM-owned pharmacies in the state and prevent over 100 out-of-state PBM-owned pharmacies from offering mail-order prescriptions in Arkansas.

If passed, the legislation would go into effect Jan. 1, 2026.

Maggie Ryan is a reporter and local host of All Things Considered for Little Rock Public Radio.