A group of independent pharmacists from across Mississippi gathered at the Capitol Thursday to urge lawmakers to increase regulation and transparency of pharmacy benefit managers, who they say are threatening their survival.
“Pharmacy benefit managers, also known as PBMs, have been monopolizing the industry and making it hard for independent pharmacists to compete and ultimately, to continue serving our communities effectively,” said Michael Jones, the owner and pharmacist of Helping Hand Family Pharmacy in Vicksburg.
If legislators do not pass a law this year to further regulate the companies, which serve as middlemen in the pharmaceutical industry, some independent pharmacies may be forced to close, warned Jones.
Pharmacists cited pharmacy benefit managers’ low payments to independent pharmacies, practice of charging insurers more for drugs than pharmacists are paid to inflate their profits, and steering customers to affiliate pharmacies as some of the ways the companies’ business practices harm independent pharmacies.
Pharmacy benefit managers negotiate pricing and conditions for access to drugs, process prescription claims and manage retail pharmacy networks.
A Federal Trade Commission report published last July argued that the companies’ anti-competitive business practices have increased prescription drug costs, hurt independent pharmacies and diminished consumers’ choice about which pharmacy to patronize.
The Mississippi House of Representatives and Senate have both passed bills that would further regulate pharmacy benefit managers, authored by Speaker of the House Jason White, R-West, and Sen. Rita Parks, R-Corinth, respectively.
Both bills prohibit spread pricing, or charging a health plan a higher price for a prescription drug a pharmacy is paid. They also give the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy more tools to conduct audits and require drug manufacturers, pharmacy benefit managers and health insurers to submit data to the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy.
While White’s bill focuses on transparency of pharmacy benefit managers, Parks’ bill includes additional language that would tighten appeal procedures, ensure pharmacy benefit managers promptly pay certain claims, and mandate that affiliate pharmacies are not paid more for dispensing drugs than other pharmacies.
Independent pharmacies spoke in support of the Senate’s bill, SB2677, because of the additional protections it includes.
“The Senate bill has more teeth right now,” said Jones. “But there’s nothing to say that the Senate, who now has HB1123, can not put language in it.”
In a press release issued Wednesday, White said the House is working with the Senate to create impactful pharmacy benefit manager reform legislation.
“It is a priority in the House of Representatives to support independent pharmacists who are such an essential part of Mississippi’s communities and protect consumers from heightened drug costs at the checkout line, while also guarding against increased health insurance and premium prices for our state’s businesses and citizens,” it read.
Parks told Mississippi Today that conversations between the two chambers are progressing.
“This is the most progress we’ve had in two years,” she said.
Legislation in the House and the Senate has not yet passed out of committee in the opposite chamber.
Fair Jones, the co-owner and pharmacist of Sav-Mor Drugs and Gifts in Grenada, said that independent pharmacists offer value to communities because of the pharmacists’ personal relationships with customers and ability to help them in times of need.
She recalled her husband and co-owner, Taylor Jones, walking door to door to deliver prescriptions during an ice storm in Grenada, when roads were too slick for people to safely drive.
“We are here today with hopes for legislation that, yes, will bring PBM reform to Mississippi and allow us to practice on a level playing field. But ultimately what we’re asking for, begging even, is the opportunity to continue serving our communities in the ways that only an independent pharmacy can,” she said.
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