(Washington, DC)—The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) issued the following statement today in response to the National Conference of Insurance Legislators’ (NCOIL) Health, Long-Term Care, and Health Retirement Issues Committee’s decision to indefinitely postpone consideration of model legislation that would have recommended adoption of expensive and unnecessary new anti-pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) regulations in each of the 50 states:

“As is so often the case, the longer experts focus on anti-PBM legislation, the more they realize it would increase health care costs with no corresponding upside to consumers. Following more than two years of extensive testimony and deliberation, the NCOIL Health Committee late yesterday afternoon voted overwhelmingly to indefinitely postpone consideration of model legislation that would have added unnecessary regulations to PBMs and increased prescription drug costs for consumers and payors.

“If adopted, this “Maine-style,” PBM fiduciary-disclosure model legislation could have been used in the states across the country as a boilerplate by the drugstore lobby and others seeking to push an anti-consumer agenda. However, once legislators realized this model would have increased costs by 10 percent and caused economic harm to those it was intended to protect, they soundly rejected the proposal.

“In recent years, numerous government and independent studies â?? including those from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) â??have all confirmed the robust savings and increased access PBMs generate for consumers and public and private payors. According to PricewaterhouseCooopers (PwC), proven PBM tools, including the increased use of generics and the mail-service pharmacy option, generate savings averaging 25 percent.

“The decision by NCOIL is important because it is an organization of state legislators whose primarily focus is on public policy issues involving insurance legislation and regulation. PCMA is pleased with this important decision that is both pro-consumer and pro-business.”

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PCMA is the national association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which lower the cost of prescription drugs for more than 200 million Americans with coverage provided through Fortune 500 employers, health insurers, labor unions, and Medicare Part D

Contact Information:
Phil Blando, 202-207-3614
Charles Coté 202-207-3605