The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) has launched a payment reform campaign to educate patients “on how pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) are increasing prescription drug prices.”
In a June 13 news announcement, the NCPA said the national campaign would include television, digital and print ads created “to push Congress to enact PBM payment reform that has broad bipartisan support in both houses.”
The launch included recent poll results that NCPA said indicated “widespread public concern over prescription drug costs and PBMs.” As examples, 84% of poll participants said drug costs are too high, and 73% “are concerned about PBMs’ impact on drug pricing.”
Additionally, 68% of poll participants “agree that PBMs are driving up drug costs,” and 62% “support Congress having some oversight into the practices of PBMs to ensure fair pricing and transparency.”
“Eighty percent of all prescriptions in the U.S. are controlled by just three pharmacy benefit managers, and they are all owned by or affiliated with the largest insurance companies in the country,” said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey, pharmacist, MBA, in the announcement. “These are Fortune 15 corporations that behave like monopolies, and they are hurting patients with higher prescription costs and killing off small businesses at the average rate of one every day. There is broad bipartisan support in Congress for reform, and we are determined to get it passed before the end of the year.”
Hoey added that many patients don’t fully understand how PBMs impact the pharmacy process.
“As the national poll shows, most patients don’t know very much about PBMs, despite that they have so much control over which prescription patients take and how much they pay for those drugs,” Hoey said. “So, while we want pharmacy teams to continue their advocacy, this campaign is aimed at patients. We want them to let their members of Congress know that PBM reforms must be enacted this year.”
