Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) A Republican legislative leader and other lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled bipartisan measures they said are designed to lower prescription drug prices, bring parity in insurance coverage of chemotherapy and improve the quality of health care.
The sweeping 15-bill package would, among other things, regulate pharmacy benefit managers that run prescription drug coverage for insurers and employers, and ban the “middlemen” PBMs from profiting by charging a health plan and their enrollees more than what is paid to the dispensing pharmacy. Three managers dominate the U.S. market: CVS Health’s Caremark business, UnitedHealth’s OptumRx and Cigna’s recently acquired Express Scripts.