Attorney General Griffin leads multistate letter asking Congress to prohibit Pharmacy Benefit Managers from owning or operating pharmacies

Griffin: ‘It Is Far Past Time That We Act To Restore The Balance Of Competition And Ensure That PBMs Only Play The Role They Were Always Meant To Play’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement after leading a bipartisan coalition of 39 states and territories in sending a letter to Congress asking it to prohibit pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from owning or operating pharmacies:

“PBMs are third-party administrators of prescription drug programs for health plans, and as such they heavily influence drug prices for pharmacies. Over the past few decades, PBMs have increasingly moved into the space of pharmacy ownership and operation. This has allowed them to set certain drug prices for pharmacies they control while setting less competitive prices for independent pharmacies and others outside their scope of influence.

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“While this practice hurts small businesses, it ultimately hurts consumers by driving down competition. The letter that I led alongside the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Missouri, and Vermont urges Congress to take action and protect consumers by enacting a law prohibiting PBMs or their parent companies from owning or operating pharmacies.

“We have stood by for too long and watched PBMs’ influence encroach on consumers and small businesses. It is far past time that we act to restore the balance of competition and ensure that PBMs only play the role they were always meant to play.”

In addition to Griffin, the attorneys general of the following states and territories also signed on to the letter sent by Arkansas: Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

To read the letter, click here.

Pharmacy benefit managers will have to pay Arkansas drugstores dispensing fees under new rule

KUAR | By Tess Vrbin / Arkansas Advocate

The Arkansas Insurance Department will require pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to include dispensing fees in their reimbursements to pharmacies for prescription drugs, a legislative panel ruled Thursday.

The new rule will financially benefit pharmacies, especially independently-owned ones in rural areas, as a remedy for years of unfair PBM reimbursements that put them at risk of closing, pharmacists and Insurance Department officials told the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Executive Subcommittee.

PBMs are companies that serve as middlemen to negotiate prescription benefits among manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and health insurance providers. The companies rank prescription drugs, with the highest-tiered products costing consumers the lowest out-of-pocket costs.

Pharmacy benefit managers will have to pay Arkansas drugstores dispensing fees under new rule

Attorney General Tim Griffin sues pharmacy benefit managers for roles in Arkansas opioid epidemic

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today announced he has filed a lawsuit against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) Optum, Inc., and Express Scripts, Inc., and their subsidiaries for their roles as a cause of the opioid epidemic in Arkansas and issued the following statement:

“Pill by pill and dollar by dollar, PBMs enabled the opioid epidemic in Arkansas. Today, we begin the process of holding them accountable for their roles in a crisis that has ravaged our state—a crisis they helped cause, contributed to, and furthered.

“The PBMs benefited financially from the opioid crisis in Arkansas by negotiating favorable deals with opioid manufacturers while at the same time forgetting the interests of Arkansans who received prescriptions. Instead of protecting consumers by leveraging data to curb excessive prescriptions, PBMs focused on the financial incentives of manufacturer rebates to drive profits at the expense of people.”

Between 2006 and 2014, Arkansas was flooded with almost 1.5 billion units of addictive opioids. By 2016, Arkansas had the second-highest opioid prescription rate in the nation, with 114.6 opioids being dispersed for every 100 Arkansans—nearly twice the national average and enough to supply every man, woman, and child in Arkansas 78 opioid doses each.

The suit, filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court, alleges that the PBM defendants:

• Fueled the opioid epidemic in Arkansas by increasing opioid utilization by placing opioids on lower tiers of their formularies, controlling what less addictive pain treatments were available to patients, and falsely representing that their formularies were designed to be cost effective and achieve favorable health outcomes but instead were designed to maximize profits;

• Operated online retail pharmacies that dispensed billions of morphine milligram equivalents of opioids while failing to follow state and federal laws on controlled substances; and,

• Were aware of the opioid epidemic in Arkansas and failed to take any action.

Griffin is asking that PBMs be held accountable for creating a public nuisance through their actions, being negligent in their actions, and unjustly enriching themselves.

To read a copy of the lawsuit, click here.