News Briefs: SCOTUS May Not Review Key PBM Regulation Case

May 30
May 30, 2025

In a win for PBMs, the Dept. of Justice’s Office of the Solicitor General filed a brief on May 28 recommending that the Supreme Court should not review a case challenging an Oklahoma law. In Pharmaceutical Care Management Association v. Mulready, the PBM trade group PCMA challenged the Patient’s Right to Pharmacy Choice Act, which sets geography-based access standards for pharmacy networks and bans PBMs from using discounts or cost-sharing differences to push plan members to certain in-network pharmacies. An appeals court in August 2023 agreed with PCMA that Oklahoma’s law violated both the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the statutes governing Medicare Part D, but that ruling contradicts the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in PCMA v. Rutledge, which challenged a PBM-regulating law in Arkansas. Thus, the Supreme Court was asked to weigh in. But in its new amicus brief, the Solicitor General suggested that a review from the high court wasn’t necessary. “SCOTUS frequently follows the suggestion of the Solicitor General, but is not required to,” advised two analysts from the research firm Washington Analysis. “We believe it is unlikely that the Court reviews the case.”
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Leslie Small

Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.