Yesterday, NCPA issued a statement addressing a news report that the pharmacy benefit manager lobbying group, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, is working on a deal with the administration to let them police themselves.
In the statement, NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey said that if true, NCPA strongly urges the administration to reject the PBMs' gambit. "Whatever they are promising to do, it would be foolish for the administration to trust the PBMs to regulate their behavior," he said.
"The fact is that the big PBMs are chronically and consistently the worst actors in health care. They've been found to overcharge states and have been fined hundreds of millions of dollars by multiple states for ripping off public benefits programs, driving up costs for American taxpayers. Their anticompetitive behavior is well documented by Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and multiple national news investigations. Their self-dealing and cutthroat practices have triggered legislation in nearly every state. Thousands of patients are frustrated at the pharmacy counter every day as the PBMs overrule their doctor's medication choice for a different medication that pays a bigger kickback to the PBM. And they are systematically destroying small business pharmacies across the country, driving up drug costs, and robbing patients of health care access. Allowing self-regulation would be like letting Al Capone police himself," Hoey said.
You can read the full news release here.
