House Hearing, Legislation Emphasize PBM Transparency

During a May 23 hearing held by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, both Republican and Democratic representatives — as well as the witnesses — seemed to agree that PBM reforms are needed. However, a consensus wasn’t clear on what policies are best suited to fix problems with the current pharmacy benefits landscape, other than mandating increased transparency into how PBMs do business.

Just one day after the hearing, another House panel — the Energy and Commerce Committee — advanced the Promoting Access to Treatments and Increasing Extremely Needed Transparency (PATIENT) Act of 2023, which would require PBMs to annually report to employer plan sponsors a host of information about prescription drug spending, utilization, acquisition costs, rebates and more. Specific to the Medicaid program, the legislation would also ban spread pricing, which occurs when PBMs pay pharmacies dispensing a drug less than what they charge payers and pocket the difference. The Biden administration on May 23 proposed a regulation that targets spread pricing in Medicaid, but it does not ban the practice.