Health Care Advocates' Pricing Pushback

Technically, at least half of the states PCMA mentioned have yet to fully consider the PBM laws that have been proposed. PCMA President Mark Merritt claims that those bills "weren't even popular enough to get rejected." But Sharon Treat, executive director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices, offers a far different scenario.

Treat says that many states have simply set aside PBM legislation -- which covers a complex and, quite often, unfamiliar topic -- until they have more time to study it. Meanwhile, she says, more and more states continue to introduce PBM rules in an effort to curb escalating drug prices and raise awareness on the matter in the process.

While serving as a senator in Maine, Treat authored one of the only PBM laws that have so far managed to take effect. But she fully expects other states to pass similar laws -- possibly this year -- as they come to better understand how PBMs operate.

Treat's group has been widely recognized as a driving force behind that effort.

"But it's a very unequal fight," she says. "The fact of the matter is that PBMs have the resources and the ability to go all over the country. I don't even have a travel budget. ... Just imagine what would happen if we actually had some resources."

'Competitive Edge'

Most recently, Treat testified in favor of a PBM bill in Colorado that fell just one vote short of leaving the health care committee.

By now, Treat says that others -- including AARP and Consumers Union -- have started fighting for more transparency from PBMs as well. To its credit, however, PCMA continues to rack up victories. The group even won some assistance from a fully transparent PBM last time around.

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