Dear editor,
Louisiana lawmakers should use the budget negotiations in Congress to push for critical reforms of the many practices that insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) use to rake in the profits while threatening access, driving up costs, and generally just making life harder for patients.
As someone who relies on prescriptions, I’m frustrated that PBMs have been able to get away with some of the things they do for this long. That includes literally moving patients away from their local pharmacies and toward the larger, chain pharmacies they own or are contracted with, as well as using prior authorization and so-called step therapy to cut costs while restricting and delaying access to the medications, treatments, and therapies that patients have been prescribed.
PBM policies aren’t intended to help patients, but to maximize profits as much as possible. Even the AARP, with all their insurance ties, have voiced their support for PBM reform to protect seniors. As lawmakers hammer out a budget deal, Senators Kennedy and Cassidy should work to integrate long-overdue PBM reforms, like the ones included in the bipartisan DRUG Act into the final budget bill legislators must pass by March 8th.
If Congress can’t finish the job on PBM reform to protect patients like me, then this is going to be something I remember at the polls in the upcoming elections. Given how many patients this issue impacts in Louisiana and nationwide, I don’t think I’ll be alone, either.
Lu Jones, RN