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ARLINGTON, Va, — NACDS is applauding U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) for their continued commitment to delivering meaningful PBM reform.
Steven Anderson
On January 23, Sens. Grassley and Cantwell — joined by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Peter Welch (D-VT), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Chris Coons (D-DE), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jon Tester (D-MT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) — sent a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to “complete its investigation into the health care industry’s most powerful prescription drug middlemen.”
“We support the [FTC’s] issuance of a Section 6(b) order and conducting a timely study of pharmacy benefits managers’ (PBM) business practices. With the FTC’s inquiry reaching its year-and-a-half mark, we urge the FTC to complete the study without delay. In the interim, we believe it is important to know the status of the study and therefore ask the FTC to issue a progress report,” the Sens. wrote in their letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan.
NACDS President and CEO Steven Anderson said of the move, “NACDS thanks the Senators for keeping the focus on the FTC study of PBMs — which is an important part of the all-branches and all-levels of government effort to confront pharmaceutical benefit manipulation. Americans and pharmacies of all types and sizes are in serious need of the study’s results and of comprehensive reform.
“Meanwhile, Congress has prepared bipartisan reforms to help protect patients in Medicare and in Medicaid, and their pharmacies. It is time for the U.S. Congress to finish the job and act on those reforms, the need for which has been validated time and time again. We appreciate the diligence of the Senators in exercising their critical roles in legislation and in oversight for the ultimate protection of all Americans.”
Watch NACDS’ new television ad urging the U.S. Congress to act without delay and pass real reform for the most vulnerable in Medicare and Medicaid.
