TAPP Signs onto Coalition Letter Urging PBM Reform

The Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity joined nearly two dozen groups in sending a letter to Congress urging passage of common sense legislation to reform some of the ways in which pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) interact with government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

In part, the coalition wrote:

The undersigned organizations, comprised of conservative and free enterprise grassroots and public policy organizations, strongly support the bipartisan PBM transparency and accountability reforms that passed through the Senate Finance Committee in 2024 – the Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability (MEPA) Act (S. 2973) and the Mental Health, Lower-Cost Drug and Extenders Package (S. 3430). The policy behind these bills will help ensure that patients realize cost savings on their prescription drugs. We urge you to pass the reforms that were contained in S. 2973 and S. 3430 this year.

PBM policies directly impact whether patients can access and afford their medicines. Common sense reforms are needed to ensure that PBMs are not able to set the price of prescription drugs, dictate decisions made between doctors and patients, and steer patients to their preferred pharmacies.

In addition, PBM reform inside government programs, which is what these bills focus on, will result in lower spending and cost savings for taxpayers. They are a down payment on critical spending cuts and regulatory reforms that will be pursued by the incoming Trump Administration. These common sense PBM reforms will make government entitlement programs smaller, something Congress will be asked to do in budget reconciliation. The time to cut spending is now.

Currently, PBMs are inflating their profits by preferencing more expensive medicines when designing formularies. By setting favorable prices and cost-sharing amounts, PBMs influence the amount that patients pay out of pocket and which medicines they can access through their insurance. If a drug isn’t on the formulary, insurers won’t cover it and often doctors won’t prescribe it—regardless of the patient’s medical needs…

Read the full letter here.