STAT+: House hearing keeps pressure on PBM practices while Congress considers reforms
The House Oversight Committee kept pressure on drug middlemen at a hearing today that focused on a new committee report that criticizes industry practices.
Pharmacy benefit managers steer patients to PBM-owned pharmacies while underpaying competing pharmacies, according to the report, which highlights concerns that lawmakers have been pounding for years. The committee found evidence of PBMs sharing patient information among affiliated companies for the specific and anticompetitive purpose of steering patients to pharmacies a PBM owns.
The hearing keeps attention on PBM reforms as Congress nears the period between elections in November and when newly elected officials take office the following January. That so-called lame duck period might be an opportune time for Congress to pass a health care legislative package that includes PBM reforms, though it’s difficult to predict what will happen following the elections.
