Patients Not PBMs Connecticut Formed to Push for Prescription Drug Transparency at the Pharmacy Counter
Coalition will shine spotlight on Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) who grab savings meant for patients
For Immediate Release
Contact: Duby McDowell
806-729-2200
mcdowell@mcdowellcg.com
(Hartford, CT) January 9, 2025– Today, Patients Not PBMs Connecticut, a coalition of patient advocacy organizations, independent pharmacists, and local business groups in Connecticut, announced its formation to push for legislation forcing transparency around pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their impact on patients and prescription drug costs.
The coalition will push for bills to be filed in the Connecticut Legislature to require PBMs – who serve as middlemen -- to be more transparent, stop keeping rebates intended for patients, stop interfering with patient access to needed care and reimburse pharmacies and physicians fairly. The legislative session began on January 8 and ends on June 4, 2025.
Patients Not PBMs Connecticut coalition members include the CT Association of Community Pharmacies, PhRMA, Bio CT, Advancing Connecticut Together, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, US Pain Foundation, Connecticut Oncology Association, Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition, ADAP Advocacy, PILMA, National Infusion Center Association, Rare New England, the Northeast Pharmacy Service Corporation and Infusion Access Foundation.
"Pharmacy Benefit Managers were originally designed to help reduce prescription drug costs, but instead, they have become a barrier between patients and the care and savings they deserve,” stated Dawn Holcombe, Executive Director, Connecticut Oncology Association. “Patients Not PBMs Connecticut is committed to demanding greater transparency and fairness from PBMs, ensuring that rebate dollars go where they belong—into the hands of patients without interference or needless delays.”
The issue of PBM’s is gaining traction at the federal level and has attracted national media attention.
Background on PBMs
When patients pay for prescription drugs, more than half the money goes to entities like insurance companies and their PBMs, who are essentially middlemen that pocket billions of rebate dollars every year. The PBM industry originally existed to help employers manage prescription drug costs and benefits overall. Now PBMs are diverting potential prescription drug savings away from patients and into high profits in the prescription drug supply chain while interfering with patient access to care and medical decision-making.
Three major PBM companies - Express Scripts, CVS Caremark, and OptumRx - make up 75% of the market. These PBMs have become so profitable over time that they are now Fortune 25 companies and ranked higher than the drug manufacturers whose prices they had promised to control. Middleman profits add costs to healthcare, without adding value to patients and their access to needed care.
Thousands of patients across Connecticut would benefit from legislation that would result in rebate dollars being shared with patients at the pharmacy counter. Connecticut currently provides no oversight of PBMs.
About Patients Not PBMs Connecticut
Patients Not PBMs Connecticut is a coalition of Connecticut organizations that formed to raise awareness around how pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), or "middlemen," are putting profits before consumers' healthcare and interfering with patient’s access to needed care. The coalition’s focus is to educate consumers about PBMs, and to advocate for policy actions in Connecticut that will prevent PBMs from continuing to drive up the price of prescription drugs by interfering and claiming funds and savings away that should be passed along to consumers.
