Outlier Legislation Raises Costs for Arkansas Taxpayers and Employers

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) President and CEO Mark Merritt released the following statement on Arkansas legislation, HB1010 and SB2:

"Health plans, employers, and state health programs hire pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to reduce costs for patients by, among other things, negotiating discounts with drug companies and drugstores. While no payer is required to hire a PBM, they choose to because PBMs typically reduce drug costs by 30 percent.

The mandate is designed to rollback some of the savings Arkansas employers and state government plans have enjoyed by empowering politicians to play a role in how much drugstores are paid in private contracts. The only possible beneficiary will be drugstore owners, who've made it clear they want to charge higher rates.

The reason no other state has embraced this kind of government mandate is because of the significant economic and legal risks associated with it. Arkansas is already mired in litigation over similar mandates.  

We look forward to watching very closely how the law is implemented."

PCMA is the national association representing America's pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PBMs administer prescription drug plans for more than 266 million Americans who have health insurance from a variety of sponsors including: commercial health plans, self-insured employer plans, union plans, Medicare Part D plans, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), state government employee plans, Medicaid plans, and others.

SOURCE Pharmaceutical Care Management Association