PBM reform bill advances
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Chris Bonner has been a pharmacist for more than three decades.
In recent years, independent pharmacies across Mississippi like Chris’s Pharmacy in Columbus say they’ve been short-changed by their benefit managers–forcing some to close.
“This is not just a pharmacy issue. It affects everybody in medicine,” said Bonner.
Pharmacy Benefit Managers or PBMs are the “middlemen” between drug manufacturers, insurance companies, and pharmacies.
They control reimbursement rates and patient drug prices.
“Every day, a third of prescriptions I fill, we lose money on. And you just have to just sit somewhere and look at someone and say you know, ‘Did I go to school to take care of them?’ which I did, versus the viability and sustainability of a business,” said Bonner.
On Tuesday, a Mississippi Senate committee advanced a PBM reform bill.
In the past few sessions, reform bills were drafted but died along the way.
House Bill 1665 passed in the Senate Public Health and Welfare committee on a narrow vote.
“Glass half full, glass half empty. It addresses some issues don’t address them all…It does help us in some areas. It affects something called spread pricing, where PBMs, pay themselves, their pharmacies, more than they pay us. It would eliminate that”
However, Bonner said the bill would not change his biggest concern — low reimbursements.
“We need a bill that sets standards by which a PBM can operate and that they can not force a business to take things less than what it costs them,” said
Bonner said they lose $60 to $70 a month on just one prescription.
Sponsors said the bill was created to increase regulation and improve the transparency of pharmacy benefit managers.
But Bonner said there’s still work left to do.
“It would be better, but it’s not a cure all. And my fear is that the house is going to rubber stamp this saying we did something and never address it again,” said Bonner.
If the house bill is signed into law, it will go into effect July 1.
