Improved Regulation Needed to Address Lack of PBM Transparency

Ron Lanton III, Esq., executive director and senior counsel for Frier Levitt Government Affairs, discusses the need for increased pharmacy benefit manager regulation on a federal level.

Transcript

I think we all would love to have increased pharmacy benefit manager regulation because number 1: there’s no oversight. There’s no federal oversight and there’s really no state oversight. When it comes to the states, it’s more of a patchwork. It really depends on if the Department of Insurance wants to take the lead, we’ve also had some states that have entertained the board of pharmacy taking the lead. So it really depends on how active or at least consumer-engaged the state is, that will depend on how hands on the state wants to be in far of overseeing that. The federal oversight has really gotten me. There’s really never been an answer about why there’s never been a federal overseer, so I think that’s definitely some work to do on that. But, you know, we need it because there is no transparency. Pharmacy benefit managers are running amok, they can do whatever they want. There’s no transparency on rebates, there’s no transparency on DIR, there’s just nothing. And it’s really hurting a lot of the pharmacies. So I think rather than saying hey Congress, you need to pick market winners and losers, which we know they won’t, we’re just saying level the playing field.