WASHINGTON, May 1, 2023 – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) today joined with more than 30 other groups representing the nation’s employers to voice support for Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Roger Marshall’s (R-KS) Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reform Act (S. 1339) ahead of the Committee’s scheduled markup tomorrow. The letter also supports Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Roger Marshall’s (R-KS) anticipated amendment to further enhance PBM accountability by applying the same fiduciary standards to PBMs that already apply to employer plan sponsors.
In a letter to HELP Committee members, ERIC and the employer groups called on Congress to ensure at least four significant pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) industry reforms remain at the center of the legislation to lower drug costs and drive value for employees:
- Require complete and unrestricted PBM transparency, allowing employers to know what drug costs are, how a PBM is making money, and what arrangements it has with drug manufacturers and other third parties.
- Ban so-called “spread pricing,” which allows a PBM to charge an employer or patient more than the PBM actually pays for a drug.
- Require 100% pass-through of rebates, discounts, fees, and other payments from drug manufacturers, to ensure patients – not PBMs – benefit.
- Apply fiduciary standards to PBMs, in the same way that employers are required to act in the best interests of the plan and its beneficiaries, and to protect the plan’s assets.
“ERIC and the other groups sending this letter represent employers, large and small, who collectively provide health insurance benefits to tens of millions of Americans,” said James Gelfand, President and CEO of ERIC. “It is on their behalf that we urge Congress to take meaningful action to implement transparency, accountability, and reform in the PBM industry – in order to lower drug costs and drive value for our workers, their families, and retirees.”
To read the letter signed by ERIC and more than 30 employer groups, click HERE.