Legislation aimed at increasing transparency in prescription drug pricing and protecting local pharmacies cleared a Senate committee this week on a 10–0 vote.
Oklahoma Senator Jerry Alvord authored Senate Bill 2074, which seeks to establish fair and transparent reimbursement standards for pharmacies and rein in practices by pharmacy benefit managers that critics say disadvantage independent community pharmacies.
Alvord spent significant time walking committee members through what he described as complex and opaque PBM reimbursement structures. He pointed to the closure of three pharmacies in his Senate district in the past four months as evidence of the impact on rural communities.
“A Tennessee audit found that PBMs were reimbursing their own affiliated pharmacies at dramatically higher rates, in some cases more than 16,000 percent higher than independent pharmacies for the same prescription,” Alvord said. “That tells us the money is already in the system, it’s just not being distributed fairly.”
The bill mirrors the reimbursement framework used in Oklahoma’s Medicaid program and would establish reimbursement floors along with a professional dispensing fee to ensure community pharmacies are paid for medications and services.
Senate Bill 2074 now moves to the next stage of the legislative process.
