Congress Must Act: Senate Hearing Highlights Urgent Need for PBM Reform

In recognition of a universal desire to increase health care affordability, the Senate Finance Committee recently held a hearing titled “The Rising Cost of Health Care: Considering Meaningful Solutions for All Americans” to examine possible policy solutions. PBM reform remains the most practical, bipartisan proposal to lower costs, as committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) highlighted in his opening remarks.  

 Senator Mike Crapo (R - ID) mentioned PBM reform as a main issue in our healthcare system in his opening statement: 

“We should also enact pharmaceutical benefit manager (PBM) reform, which would realign incentives in the drug supply chain to lower patient costs at the pharmacy counter. Ranking Member Wyden and I intend to reintroduce the Senate Finance Committee’s package shortly, and we invite all members of this Committee to join us as co-sponsors as we move the bill to the President’s desk for his signature. “The PBM process undertaken by this Committee should serve as a model for other reforms. Health care integration can produce efficiencies, but too much consolidation can result in monopolistic powerhouses that block innovative disruptors, limit market competition, and constrain consumer choice. Witnesses detailed how opaque rebate structures, spread pricing, and vertically integrated business models can drive up list prices and shift costs onto patients. Members on both sides of the aisle made clear that the status quo is unsustainable.” 

News that Sens. Crapo and Ron Wyden (D-OR), the Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member, are preparing legislation to delink PBM revenues from prescription drug prices and ban spread pricing is welcome. Lawmakers must not pass up this opportunity to advance meaningful PBM reform and deliver affordability that patients urgently need.