In early 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order that required federal agencies to cut 10 regulations for every new rule they introduce. The Administration’s goal of cutting red tape is straightforward: eliminate unnecessary costs, embrace innovation, and promote competition that yields market-based solutions.
Last week, the Department of Labor (DOL) followed suit with a new electronic disclosure proposal that will allow health plans to deliver required notices digitally, modernizing a decades-old system that still relies heavily on paper mailings. DOL estimates the change could save nearly $3.9 billion over the next decade while improving access to information for patients. Group health plans currently print and mail as many as 11 billion sheets of paper each year, making this a textbook example of smart deregulation. PCMA celebrates this proposal.
It is entirely consistent with the Trump Administration’s broader approach to government. Unfortunately, another DOL proposed rule is moving in the opposite direction and not only undermines the Administration’s progress, but also landmark pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform recently enacted by the president in the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA).
The Department’s proposed PBM rule represents exactly the kind of regulatory overreach the Administration has worked to eliminate. The law the president signed already provides full transparency and reporting requirements so that employers fully understand how their prescription benefit dollars are being spent. The DOL transparency rule ignores the new requirements in the CAA entirely, and provides no new benefit, just more reporting mandates.
DOL should not give to families and employers with one hand and take away with the other. The new electronic delivery proposal recognizes that less red tape can mean lower costs and better outcomes. The PBM disclosure rule ignores that lesson. The priority should be delivering on President Trump’s affordability agenda, not creating new regulations that could undermine it.