How a key Senate committee is planning to regulate pharmacy benefit managers

WASHINGTON — A key Senate health care panel has developed a plan to tackle reforms to middlemen in the pharmacy drug payment system, according to bill text obtained by STAT.

The draft legislation, authored by Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and ranking member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), includes several measures to regulate how pharmacy benefit managers are paid by health plans to negotiate with drugmakers.

The most significant measure is a bill from Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) that would prohibit PBMs from getting any income outside of service fees, and prohibits those service fees from being related to drugs’ list prices.

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