WASHINGTON, D.C., April 15, 2026 – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) today submitted recommendations in response to the Department of Labor’s (Department) proposed rulemaking for providers of “pharmacy benefit management services.” In its comment letter, ERIC praised the administration’s efforts to require these vendors and service providers to disclose information about their compensation to fiduciaries of self-insured, employer-sponsored health plans.
The proposed rules were issued pursuant to an Executive Order directing the Department to issue this rule to comply with a legal requirement passed into law in 2021, and to align with the administration’s ongoing support for health care transparency. Congress then confirmed its commitment to reforming the practices of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) by enacting transparency and accountability requirements in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 (CAA26), which included language supporting this rule.
“The enactment of the CAA made many ERIC-led reforms to the PBM industry a reality – reforms that are critical to lowering drug costs for employers and patients,” said ERIC President and CEO James Gelfand. “The proposed regulations are strong, align with the CAA reforms, and fill in gaps left by the legislation, such as addressing spread pricing.”
As fiduciaries, self-insured plan sponsors need access to detailed information to assess whether fees being charged to the plan are fair and justified. In its comments, ERIC offered a series of recommendations designed to ensure that the rule fully reflects the spirit of the law, including:
- Clarifying that all affiliated entities, such as Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), and other service providers to group health plans, must disclose the compensation they receive.
- Listing specific examples of the types of compensation streams that must be reported, including payments flowing through vertically integrated arrangements, and “spread pricing” arrangements that flow through PBM-owned specialty pharmacies and PBM-owned “drug branding entities.”
- Confirming that the prohibition on “gag clauses” that deny plan sponsors access to their own plan cannot be undermined by Third-Party Administrators or provider networks.
- Ensuring that a plan sponsor’s audit rights apply to all functions the sponsor engages in to meet its fiduciary obligations.
- Recognizing that health claims data in a self-insured plan creates economic value for a service provider, and requiring the service provider to disclose that data to the plan fiduciary.
- Urging the Department to finalize the proposed requirements as soon as possible, while setting a January 1, 2027, effective date for the regulations, six months later than originally proposed.
ERIC is a national advocacy organization exclusively representing the largest employers in the United States in their capacity as sponsors of employee benefit plans for their nationwide workforces. With member companies that are leaders in every economic sector, ERIC is the voice of large employer plan sponsors on federal, state, and local public policies impacting their ability to sponsor benefit plans. ERIC member companies offer benefits to tens of millions of employees and their families, located in every state and city across the country.
Read the full comments here.