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Overcast Oceanside, Rockville Centre pharmacists seek oversight over PBMs
For years, independent pharmacy owners have pushed state and local governments to curb the powers of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), companies that act as intermediaries between pharmacies and drug manufacturers and insurance companies. Oceanside and Rockville Centre independent pharmacy owners are excited at the oversight that recent potential legislation from Albany could provide.
Four New York Senate and Assembly bills were passed in the Legislature between June 1 and 10 that could better define the roles of PBMs and level the playing field between larger retailers and independent ones by potentially establishing the same reimbursement amount for all pharmacies, as Senate Bill S3566 and Assembly Bill A5854 would do.
The measures now await Governor Cuomo’s signature to become law.
PBMs have been criticized by independent pharmacies owners across the country as prescription drug costs have continued to climb. Fred Rigel, the owner of Levin’s Pharmacy in Oceanside, hosted rallies in 2019 calling for more oversight on PBMs to protect independent pharmacies from being run out of business by larger retailers and corporations.
Howard Jacobson, owner of Rockville Centre Pharmacy, rallied with Rigel then and continues their fight, seeking to pass the new pieces of legislation. “The PBM and licensure bill is good because at least we can know who [the PBMs] are, what they are doing, and have an avenue if there are issues either between patient and plan or pharmacy and plan,” Jacobson said, citing Senate Bill S3762 and Assembly Bill A1396. State Sen. Neil Breslin and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried sponsored the two measures, respectively.
Jacobson and Rigel said they believe the choice between independent and chain pharmacies is important for Americans to have. The Rockville Centre Pharmacy has administered 4,000 vaccines and visited homebound residents in some of those cases. Jacobson believes the personal touch of independent, local pharmacies helps to provide more specific care from a practitioner who often lives in the same community and cares about its health more personally.
Senate Bill S3566 and Assembly Bill A5854 have the potential to even the reimbursement amounts and also remove provisions in the law that imposed extra requirements on community pharmacies for certain medications. The hope from Albany is that this would provide New Yorkers with more options when seeking medications.
Thomas D’Angelo, president of the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York, was pleased with the recent pieces of legislation. “Albany,” he said, “has taken an important first step in keeping New Yorkers healthy by passing crucial legislation that will protect independent pharmacists and their patients from out-of-control prescription drug middlemen known as PBMs, which for years have kept drug prices high, reduced patient choice, ripped off taxpayers, and put neighborhood pharmacies out of business.
“PBMs will continue to hurt New Yorkers until these bills are enacted,” he continued, “and we call on the governor to put an immediate end to these abuses by signing these essential and broadly supported bills into law without delay.”
