PBM Accountability Project Statement on House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health Hearing on Lowering Health Care Costs

This week, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing titled, “Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: Examining Policies to Increase Health Care Transparency." Mark Blum, managing director of the PBM Accountability Project, issued the following statement:

“This latest hearing on transparency once again reiterates the importance of bringing greater accountability to the healthcare system. The role of vertically integrated insurance corporations and their affiliated PBMs must be central to that effort.

“Congress has taken meaningful steps toward greater transparency in the prescription drug supply chain. However, fundamental questions remain about vertically integrated insurers and their affiliated PBMs. A market controlled by a small number of vertically integrated insurers is not a competitive market. When those same entities can steer care and pad profits behind a wall of opacity, patients and employers pay the price.

“At the same time, the largest PBMs have created offshore rebate contracting entities, known as group purchasing organizations (GPOs), that add yet another opaque layer to the system. Recent investigations by Members of Congress and federal oversight agencies suggest these structures are routing profits and pricing decisions beyond meaningful oversight while patients and employers continue to pay the price.

“The public agrees: there is strong, bipartisan support for Congress to act. Advancing full transparency across every layer of the healthcare system, including the role of vertically integrated insurers and their affiliated PBMs, is not just good policy. It is what patients, employers and taxpayers are demanding."

Learn more at pbmaccountability.org