Six national organizations have formed a coalition to transform the way pharmacy benefit managers operate.
The Coalition for PBM Reform represents independent pharmacies, grocery stores, chain pharmacies, small businesses and more. It is made up of:
- The National Community Pharmacists Association
- The Food Industry Association
- The AIDS Healthcare Foundation
- The National Federation of Independent Business
- The Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations
- The Community Oncology Alliance
"Our organizations represent millions of patients, hundreds of thousands of employers and thousands of healthcare providers whose access to medicine is threatened by a handful of companies that dominate the prescription drug industry," the coalition stated in a news release. "These companies decide prescription drug benefits, set prices, limit access and threaten the viability of local healthcare providers."
The coalition said that the three largest PBMs in the U.S. are all Fortune 15 companies and control nearly 80 percent of all prescriptions filled in the U.S. Their practices affect the cost of prescription drugs for most Americans and most employers.
"There is no transparency in how PBMs price medicines, reimburse pharmacies or determine how much patients will pay at the counter," Douglas Hoey, CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association, said in the news release. "Transparency is essential to any healthy market. There is none in the prescription drug market. Americans pay the highest drug prices in the world. And we're the only country that has turned over prescription drugs to PBMs. We don't think that's a coincidence. "
Read the full news release here.