Alabama Senate passes Community Pharmacy Relief Act

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — Republicans and Democrats said one bill will keep pharmacy middlemen, or PBM’s, from undercutting local drug stores.

“It’s just kind of a uniting force for multiple communities that we service,” said Anna Noojin, second generation pharmacist at Boaz Discount Drugs in Boaz. Noojin said community drugstores have been struggling to survive.

“Everyday I sit here and fill prescriptions, and we see them come back in red,” she said. “We’re losing money on what we pay for prescriptions. The PBM’s are reimbursing us less than that.”

That’s why Alabama Senators passed the Community Pharmacy Relief Act. It would make PBM’s pay local drugstores what it cost them to dispense a drug. That means the acquisition cost of the drug, plus $10.64, which is the Medicaid reimbursement rate. Sen. Billy Beasley (D-Clayton), also a pharmacist, said PBM’s keep drugstores from offering prescriptions that might cost less.

“Even though a generic drug may cost half as much,” said Beasley. “And, that penalizes the consumer. And this bill will remedy that.”

But, the Alliance of Alabama Healthcare Consumers’ Robin Stone disagrees. Stone said the reimbursement requirement will get passed down to customers.

“It still targets our large, marquee employers. Like Hyundai, and Honda, Mercedes, and Airbus, and those big companies that the state has worked so very hard to locate and grow in Alabama,” he explained. “They’re exposed. And, their employee benefit programs are open to a lot of costs.”

Stone said over 2.7 million people in Alabama get health insurance through their employers.

“That is an enormous cost to the employers of Alabama that will be passed on to their employees and their families,” said Stone. “At a time when families don’t need any increases in the cost of living.”

Sen. Andrew Jones (R-Centre) said the bill prohibits that fee from being passed down. “I want to make that very clear,” he said. “The actual acquisition cost of the drug, plus the reimbursement, which is based on Medicaid, that cannot be passed on to the consumer. And, anything to the contrary is just a scare tactic.”

The act would take effect immediately if signed into law. But, some reimbursement regulations for PBM’s would go into effect on October 1st. The bill now heads to the House for a committee vote.