Special legislative session could make Arkansas first to regulate pharmacy benefit managers

On Monday afternoon, Governor Hutchinson said he would call a special session of the Arkansas legislature to address low reimbursement rates provided to pharmacies by middleman companies called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. The special session will begin after the ongoing fiscal session — during which the General Assembly typically handles budgetary matters only — though the governor declined to give an exact date.

“Our local pharmacists … are an integral and critical part of our health care system in Arkansas,” Hutchinson said. “We’re a rural state. Independent local pharmacists are very important. … If they go out of business, that’s a problem for our state.”

Insurance carriers hire PBMs to negotiate better prices on pharmaceuticals with drug manufacturers. PBMs also handle pharmacy claims; when a patient with insurance fills a prescription at a pharmacy, the PBM reimburses the pharmacy for the drug in question on the insurer’s behalf. But Arkansas pharmacists say those reimbursement rates have recently dropped so low that they are losing money on many prescriptions, forcing them to lay off employees and, in some cases, go out of business.

The controversy is focused on CVS Caremark, the PBM used by the state’s largest insurance carrier, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. In January, Blue Cross and CVS Caremark made changes that sent pharmacists’ losses skyrocketing, according to Scott Pace, CEO of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association.

Read more: https://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/special-legislative-session-could-make-arkansas-first-to-regulate-pharmacy-benefit-managers/Content?oid=14827000