A bill that aims to increase pharmacy benefit managers’ transparency by requiring them to report data to the agency that oversees pharmacy practice in Mississippi passed in the House of Representatives Thursday.
But the Board of Pharmacy and some pharmacists say the legislation doesn’t do enough to help pharmacies and patients.
House Speaker Jason White, who authored the bill, called it “a good first step.” It will give the Board of Pharmacy – and the public – insight into the companies’ business practices to ensure they are compliant with the law, he told Mississippi Today.
The bill, which passed 88-8, does the following:
- Prohibits pharmacy benefit managers from charging insurers more for drugs than pharmacists are paid, a practice that can be used by the companies to inflate their profits.
- Requires pharmacy benefit managers to submit reports detailing the rebates, or cost savings, they receive from pharmaceutical companies and to disclose their affiliations with pharmacies to the Board of Pharmacy.
- Requires drug manufacturers and health insurers to submit reports detailing wholesale drug costs and information about drug costs and spending, respectively, to the Board of Pharmacy.
- Tasks the Board of Pharmacy with developing a website summarizing the reports.
- Allows the Board of Pharmacy to issue subpoenas during audits of pharmacy benefit managers and forces the company to pay for the audit if it is found to be noncompliant with state statute.
It will next go to the Senate for consideration.
But some advocates say the bill does not do enough to protect independent pharmacists, or retail pharmacies not owned by a publicly traded company or affiliated with a large chain, and the customers they serve.
Many Mississippi independent pharmacists fear they may be forced to close as a result of low payments from pharmacy benefit managers, which small businesses do not have the leverage to negotiate.
“Collecting the data is one thing. Doing something with it is another,” said Robert Dozier, the executive director of the Mississippi Independent Pharmacy Association. “When you look at the legislation, it does nothing to help the pharmacists, and it’s not tightening the loopholes that the Board of Pharmacy needs. It’s not going to do a whole lot.”
In a statement read by Rep. Stacey Hobgood-Wilkes, a Republican from Picayune and chair of the Drug Policy committee, on the House Floor, the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy requested that the legislation be amended to heighten the regulatory enforcement authority it holds over pharmacy benefit managers, though it did not name specific tools that would be helpful.
The Board of Pharmacy did not respond to a request for comment by the time the story published.
Dozier said he supports a bill brought by Hobgood-Wilkes which institutes a standardized pricing model for prescription drugs based on national average drug costs.
Several states, including Kentucky, have passed laws that use the pricing model to regulate drug costs.
But White said the House is not yet ready to approve a specific pricing model, and that he would not vote for Hobgood-Wilkes’ bill if it made it to the House floor.
In the past, legislation to regulate pharmacy benefit managers in Mississippi has struggled to gain support. A 2023 bill proposed by Hobgood-Wilkes using the same standardized pricing model died in the House Insurance Committee, chaired by Rep. Jerry Turner, R-Baldwyn.
A 2024 bill that would have increased pricing transparency and prohibited pharmacy benefit managers from retaliating against pharmacies or charging insurance plans or patients more than the amount they paid pharmacies for a prescription died in the House.
White said he would support appropriations for additional staff to allow the Board of Pharmacy to carry out new responsibilities included in the bill.
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