California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has vetoed CA SB966, legislation which would increase transparency and accountability of pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. Mark Blum, managing director of the PBM Accountability Project, issued the following statement:
“We are disappointed to see this legislation come to a halt on the Governor’s desk. PBMs continue to find ways to deceive the public and manipulate our healthcare system to their benefit. Despite what PBMs have been telling us, they are not lowering out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions. They are instead driving up patient costs at the pharmacy, hindering independent pharmacists’ abilities to help their patients – even keep their doors open – and creating additional barriers for patient access to medicines they need. This legislation aimed to address some of the ways PBMs exploit their own clients through practices, like steering customers away from local pharmacies to PBM-owned mail-order shops that generate even higher profits and patients’, union, and employer health plan sponsors’ expense.
“We thank California state Senator Scott Wiener for his leadership on this bill and we applaud the California Pharmacists Association and all other stakeholders’ efforts to advocate for change. Reforms of predatory PBM business practices are needed at the state and federal level to assure affordability of prescription medicines and prevent abuses of PBM clients and patients. Patients, pharmacists, unions, employers and taxpayers deserve better protection than this from insurance corporation giants and their PBM middlemen in California and across the country.”
To learn more about the PBM issue and legislative solutions, click here.
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