Collins statement on markup of Prescription Pricing for the People Act of 2019

"Due to the lack of transparency, these price concessions are often withheld from patients and payers, increasing PBM profits while failing to decrease drug costs. H.R. 2376, the Prescription Pricing for the People Act of 2019, directs the FTC to review and report on PBMs' anticompetitive behaviors and other issues affecting competition in the pharmaceutical supply chain as a whole."

WASHINGTON — Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, made the following opening statement at today’s markup of H.R. 2376, the Prescription Pricing for the People Act of 2019. Below are the remarks as prepared. Ranking Member Collins: Thank you, Chairman Nadler, for partnering with me on the Prescription Pricing for the People Act of 2019. Over the past decade, consolidation across the health care and prescription drug markets has been rapidly increasing. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the pharmacy benefit manager marketplace. Since 2008, the market has gone from more than 20 major players to 3 companies controlling 85% of the space. As these companies have consolidated horizontally, they have also merged vertically with major pharmacies and health insurers. The resulting consolidation has enabled PBMs to maneuver in the shadows to block savings from reaching the patients who depend on them to afford their medications. PBMs consistently engage in anticompetitive behavior by targeting competing pharmacies with unfair audits and under-reimbursement. PBMs are able to audit competing pharmacies, viewing data including the pharmacies’ acquisition costs and patient data. PBMs then use this data to steer patients to their own pharmacies and reimburse competing pharmacies at a much lower rate, retaining the spread along the way. In Ohio, CVS and OptumRx charged the state over $400 million more than they paid out to pharmacies. PBMs exert immense control over patient formularies, allowing them to steer patients to high-cost medications because these medications give them higher rebates. By steering patients to higher-cost medications, PBMs increase patients’ copays and incentivize manufacturers to increase drug costs to pay PBMs higher rebate demands. PBMs’ roles as intermediaries also allow them to extract rebates and price concessions from competing pharmacies and manufacturers without passing them on to patients. Due to the lack of transparency, these price concessions are often withheld from patients and payers, increasing PBM profits while failing to decrease drug costs. H.R. 2376, the Prescription Pricing for the People Act, directs the FTC to review and report on PBMs' anticompetitive behaviors and other issues affecting competition in the pharmaceutical supply chain as a whole. The FTC is on a short timeline to produce these reports, so that we will be able to legislate upon the results during this term of Congress, once the reports are in. I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.