WASHINGTON, March 20, 2024 –Leaders from three leading non-profit business associations issued a united statement on Congress’ failure to include pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform legislation in the government spending package this week, despite clear, enormous bipartisan support to do so.
Transparency-Rx CEO/Managing Director Joseph M. Shields, The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) President and CEO James Gelfand, and the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) Interim President and CEO David Gaugh, issued the following joint statement:
“It is no doubt disappointing that, despite broad bipartisan and bicameral support, Congress did not include PBM market reforms in the legislation,” they stated.
“We thank our committee and member champions for their tireless work to advance PBM transparency and accountability reforms in commercial, federal and government markets and will continue to push for PBM reform this year. Comprehensive PBM reform is critical to protect the free market, expand patient access to lower-priced generics and biosimilars, and prevent disparities. Drug costs for patients and plans can and should be transparent and affordable, providing demonstrable savings for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, employers and their employees, local businesses, and the federal and state governments,” they added.
“We remain steadfast in our drive for Congress to pass reform, particularly the policies reflected in S. 1339, the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reform Act, and policies to delink PBM revenues from fees paid by drug manufacturers to PBMs. We will continue to work with Congress to enact these reforms and reduce patient spending on lifesaving medicines this year.”
Transparency-Rx launched in September 2023 with a forward-looking policy platform that embraces many of the industry changes currently under consideration by Congress and increasingly advanced by
state policymakers. These include a ban on spread pricing, instituting a 100% pass-through model for discounts, de-linking PBM fees from the price of drugs, reform of group purchasing organizations tied to big PBMs, and technology that backs data sharing with patients, insurers, pharmacists, and other stakeholders. Founding members include AffirmedRx, Liviniti, MedOne Pharmacy Benefit Solutions Rx, Navitus Health Solutions,RxPreferred Benefits and SmithRx.
The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) is a national nonprofit 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 and to lawfully operate under ERISA’s protection from a patchwork of different and conflicting state and local laws, in addition to federal law.
The Association for Accessible Medicines, your generics and biosimilars industry, is driven by the belief that access to safe, quality, effective medicine has a tremendous impact on a person’s life and the world around them. Generic and biosimilar medicines improve people’s lives, improving society and the economy in turn. AAM represents the manufacturers of finished generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars, manufacturers of bulk pharmaceutical chemicals, and suppliers of other goods and services to the generic industry. Generic pharmaceuticals are 90 percent of prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. but only 17.5 percent of total drug spending.