Comer: Pharmacy Benefit Managers Are Harming Patients by Driving Up Drug Costs to Line Their Own Pockets
Announces hearing to examine pricing tactics by the PBM industry
WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today announced an upcoming hearing titled, “The Role of Pharmacy Benefit Managers in Prescription Drug Markets Part II: Not What the Doctor Ordered.” At the hearing, members will examine pricing tactics deployed by Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to enrich themselves at the expense of patients across the country.
“The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has made it a priority to expose the anticompetitive tactics by Pharmacy Benefit Managers that are increasing health care costs for Americans and harming patient care. Information the Committee has reviewed shows spread pricing and rebates benefit PBMs and have helped the three largest PBMs monopolize the pharmaceutical market. Congress can work in a bipartisan fashion to shine a light on PBMs, and this oversight hearing will examine how the PBM industry is making a concerted effort to drive up drug costs to line their own pockets,” said Chairman Comer. “Greater transparency in the PBM industry is vital and the Oversight Committee will work to inform legislative solutions that can greatly benefit patients and reduce drug costs.”
On March 1, 2023, Chairman Comer launched an investigation into PBMs’ role in rising health care costs. He requested senior officials at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Defense Health Agency (DHA) provide documents and communications to determine the extent PBMs’ tactics impact healthcare programs administered by the federal government. Additionally, Chairman Comer requested that the largest PBMs—CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx—provide documents, communications, and information related to their practices that are distorting the pharmaceutical market and limiting high quality care for patients. On May 23, 2023, the Committee held its first hearing that examined how PBMs have an oversized role in the pharmaceutical marketplace.
WHAT: Hearing titled “The Role of Pharmacy Benefit Managers in Prescription Drug Markets Part II: Not What the Doctor Ordered”
DATE: Tuesday, September 19, 2023
TIME: 10:00AM ET
LOCATION: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
WITNESSES:
JC Scott
President and CEO, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA)
Lori Reilly
Chief Operating Officer, PhRMA
Craig Burton
Executive Director, BioSimilars Council
Senior Vice President, Association for Accessible Medicines
Hugh Chancy, RPh
President, National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA)
The hearing will be open to the public and press and will be livestreamed online at https://oversight.house.gov/.