Input Stories

The NAM has long advocated for pharmacy benefit manager reform, a top health care priority for manufacturers. Crucial NAM-supported PBM priorities were included in the spending bill that passed the House yesterday by a wide bipartisan margin (Fierce Healthcare).

What it does: The bill—which arrives as a Jan. 30 funding deadline looms—delinks PBM compensation from medicine list prices in Medicare and bans spread pricing in Medicaid.

• PBM reform is a longtime top priority of the NAM, and lawmakers have been working on a compromise on the issue for months.
• Also in the bill are PBM reforms for commercial plans—including needed transparency provisions, which will help manufacturers better manage and predict health care costs, and full rebate passthrough, which will return resources to manufacturers and put money back into the pockets of their employees.

The NAM says: The NAM drove the inclusion of PBM reform in the package, writing to House and Senate leaders (and highlighting the issue on social media).

• The NAM told policymakers that “Seventy percent of manufacturers cited health care and insurance costs as their primary business concern in the NAM’s most recent Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey. Increased costs are impacting small and medium-sized manufacturers disproportionately, with 77.3% of small (fewer than 50 employees) and 76.6% of medium-sized (50 to 499 employees) companies identifying health care costs as their top concern.”
• “Manufacturers … greatly appreciate the timely inclusion of solutions in H.R. 7148 to address this critical issue. The NAM looks forward to continuing its work with Congress to ensure manufacturers of all sizes can continue offering health insurance to their workers, and their families, who work hard every day to power the American economy.”