(The Center Square) – More regulations are coming for pharmacy benefit managers with a bipartisan bill Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed Tuesday.
At a bill signing ceremony at OSF HealthCare in Peoria, state Rep. Jehan Gordon Booth, D-Peoria, said House Bill 1697 being signed shows bipartisanship is alive.
“Bipartisanship still plays in Peoria,” Gordon Booth said. “It also plays in the state of Illinois.”
The measure received only one “no” vote in the Senate and one “no” vote in the House.
State Sen. Dale Fowler, R-Harrisburg, said with the bill, PBMs will no longer be able to steer customers to large pharmacies they have a stake in.
“No more will unchecked pharmacy benefit managers operate in the shadows, draining the life from our local pharmacies and driving up the cost of care,” Fowler said.
The measure also establishes a $25 million taxpayer-funded grant to support independent pharmacies.
State Rep. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria, also praised the law.
“Ensuring access to pharmacies throughout the state of Illinois, ensuring that you can keep your doors open, continuing to serve your communities as the critical partner that you are,” Spain said.
The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association opposed the bill, saying it will lead to higher consumer and business costs and doesn’t address “Big Pharma,” which sets the price for drugs.
“This legislation imposes a new tax on patients and health plan sponsors and will increase health care costs for everyone,” the group said in a statement after the bill was signed. “It further removes choices for employers providing health benefits by dictating how they can contract with their pharmacy benefit manager.”
PCMA said Illinois legislators have already passed a bevy of laws regulating PBMs.
“Lawmakers have passed 20 bills regulating and restricting PBMs since 2016, none of which have led to lower drug prices,” the group said. “To truly lower drug costs, we encourage legislators to focus on the entire prescription drug supply chain, namely Big Pharma who alone set and raise the price of their drugs.”
Pritzker also signed House Bill 3019 Tuesday to expand banning prior authorization for additional mental health services, among other insurance changes. That measure had mostly partisan opposition.
