Share Copy link Email LinkedIn X/Twitter Facebook Print Employers, lawmakers, patient advocates, price transparency groups and more urged the Department of Labor to quickly finalize a rule that would force pharmacy benefit managers, shadowy middlemen in the drug supply chain, to share more pricing and compensation information. PBMs did not feel the same, according to industry comments on the proposed regulation. The rule has been caught up between two powerful industries — healthcare purchasers like employers and the PBMs they contract with to manage their drug benefits — since it was proposed in January, amid growing criticism of PBMs and a broader bet from the Trump administration that better price transparency will lower healthcare costs. The public input period on the rule closed Wednesday. In comments, PBMs slammed the rule as unnecessary government overreach, es…

PBMs, the biggest of which are owned by healthcare conglomerates, have been successful at avoiding significant federal reform to date, despite some piecemeal efforts from Congress. However, the DOL’s rule — and the broad support it’s receiving from varied healthcare stakeholders — suggests the industry’s concerns about negative attention from Washington won’t ease any time soon. PBMs sit at the epicenter of the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain, organizing pharmacy networks, negotiating savings on drugs with pharmaceutical companies, creating prescription formularies and processing claims for employers and health plans. As such, the companies are in a powerful position to influence which patients receive which drugs when — and at what cost.