(Washington, D.C.) — Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) President and CEO Mark Merritt released the following statement on Arkansas legislation, HB 1010 and SB2:

“Health plans, employers, and state health programs hire pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to reduce costs for patients by, among other things, negotiating discounts with drug companies and drugstores. While no payer is required to hire a PBM, they choose to because PBMs typically reduce drug costs by 30 percent.

The mandate is designed to rollback some of the savings Arkansas employers and state government plans have enjoyed by empowering politicians to play a role in how much drugstores are paid in private contracts. The only possible beneficiary will be drugstore owners, who’ve made it clear they want to charge higher rates.

The reason no other state has embraced this kind of government mandate is because of the significant economic and legal risks associated with it.  Arkansas is already mired in litigation over similar mandates.

We look forward to watching very closely how the law is implemented.”