WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Josh Hawley and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced bipartisan legislation to prevent Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) from owning pharmacies and driving up prescription drug costs for their own benefit.
“The insurance monopolies are ruining American health care. Patients and independent pharmacies are paying the price. This legislation will stop the insurance companies and PBMs from gobbling up even more of American health care and charging American families more and more for less,” said Senator Hawley.
“PBMs have manipulated the market to enrich themselves — hiking up drug costs, cheating employers, and driving small pharmacies out of business. My new bipartisan bill will untangle these conflicts of interest by reining in these middlemen,” said Senator Warren.
The Patients Before Monopolies (PBM) Act would:
- Prohibit a parent company of a PBM or an insurer from owning a pharmacy business;
- Require that a parent company in violation of the PBM Act divest its pharmacy business within three years;
- Enable the FTC, Department of Health and Human Services, Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and state attorneys general to issue orders requiring violators of the PBM Act to divest its pharmacy business and disgorge any revenue received during the period of such violation;
- Direct the FTC to distribute any disgorged revenue to harmed communities, including consumers overcharged at vertically integrated pharmacies.
- Mandate the reporting of all divestitures to the FTC, and allowing the FTC to review all divestitures and subsequent acquisitions to protect competition, financial viability, and the public interest.
Read the full bill text here.