ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The National Community Pharmacists Association today issued a statement on behalf of CEO B. Douglas Hoey on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to review a pharmacy benefit manager reform case out of Oklahoma:
“After the historic Rutledge v. PCMA unanimous Supreme Court decision in 2020, which allowed states to regulate PBMs, the big health insurance companies and their PBM lobby have been barnstorming the country putting up one legal challenge after another. Now the lower courts are divided, and the states are confused about what they can do to protect patients and small-business pharmacies from the unfair, anticompetitive practices of the PBMs, higher drug costs, and from PBMs overruling doctors’ prescribing decisions. We are very disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court did not take this opportunity to clarify the law and reinforce its own decision in the Rutledge case.”
The case in question, Mulready v. PCMA, originates in Oklahoma, where the powerful PBM lobby sued state Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready to prevent him from implementing aspects of a law regulating PBMs. A lower federal court upheld the law, but the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned it in a poorly reasoned decision that directly conflicts with the law of the land as outlined in Rutledge. States contemplating PBM reform should not be dissuaded – they should look to Rutledge and the Wehbi decision from the 8th Circuit. Other challenges are winding their way through the federal courts. But yesterday’s Supreme Court decision likely means the 10th Circuit decision will remain in force for now, but for only 10th Circuit states (Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming).
