As political pressure mounts on pharmacy benefit managers in statehouses across the country, APCI Legislative Affairs staff plan to turn up the heat with a visit to Washington, D.C.
APCI’s Legislative Affairs Director Bill Eley will travel to Capitol Hill July 18-19 to meet with staffers from congressional committees and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“We are set up on the House side with the Energy and Commerce Committee, along with the Oversight Committee staffs,” Eley said. “We’re wanting to keep the pot stirred on PBMs.
“There’s a lot of attention [on PBMs] on Capitol Hill,” Eley added. “President Trump, when he announced his blueprint for health care, indicated that the manufacturers would be lowering their prices within two weeks. That’s been six weeks ago. Senator [Elizabeth] Warren (D-Mass.) and Senator [Tina] Smith (D-Minn.) have sent a letter to every wholesaler and PBM, asking ‘what’s the deal? Aren’t you supposed to be lowering costs?’ [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Alex] Azar went before the Health Committee in the Senate and announced that’s what they’re working on. In fact, the past few weeks we’ve seen increases in prices.”
Part of the strategy involved in the trip is making lawmakers understand how federal funds are affected by PBM activities, Eley added.
“When taxpayer money is involved, it gets [lawmaker] attention more than independent pharmacists saying ‘PBMs are underpaying us,’” Eley said. “They don’t really get it until the story is completely explained to them.”
Eley also said that the goal for the trip is to create interest in public hearings related to PBM abuses.
“We are targeting House and Senate committees to give them this information to get them interested in maybe having a hearing or exploring it more. We’re going to tantalize them with what we’ve got now, hopefully they will ask for more information.
“The end result of the trip to Washington will be a better understanding of PBM price spread issues among committee staffers and any Senators or House members we meet with,” he added. “The purpose is to get their interest to have a hearing about it, to see if there’s enough for them there to have a full-blown hearing.”
For more information about APCI advocacy activities, contact the Legislative Affairs department.