NCPA Blasts Gambit by PBMs to “Self-Regulate”

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Sept. 24, 2025) – The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) issued the following statement today on behalf of CEO B. Douglas Hoey in response to a news report that the lobbying group for PBMs, which represents the same massive corporations under scrutiny by federal regulators, Congress and state lawmakers for bilking taxpayers and rigging competition, is working on a deal with the administration that would let them police themselves:

“If this news report is accurate, we would strongly urge the administration to reject this gambit. Whatever they are promising to do, it would be foolish for the administration to trust the PBMs to regulate their behavior. They could have been doing that all along. But they have refused. In fact, they’ve litigated against every effort to regulate their behavior or just ignored the law.

“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.”