Governor DeSantis Announces Plan to Work with State Legislature to Enact the Most Comprehensive PBM Reform Legislation in Florida’s History
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES, January 12, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — Florida Small Business Pharmacies Aligned for Reform (SPAR), a grassroots pharmacy advocacy organization dedicated to preserving patient access to neighborhood pharmacies, today praised Governor Ron DeSantis following a news conference during which he announced plans to take on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the mostly-invisible middlemen with self-appointed authority over how patients receive their prescription medications and how much they’ll pay for those medications at the pharmacy counter.
“On behalf of Florida’s small business pharmacies and patients, we thank Governor DeSantis for taking decisive action to lower prescription drug prices and remove barriers to quality healthcare and affordability for Floridians,” said Ben Levene, SPAR board member and Managing Partner at Center Pharmacy in Cape Coral. “Governor DeSantis’ willingness to take on the large, shadowy pharmacy benefit middlemen who’ve been profiteering off Florida for years is a clear demonstration of his leadership and commitment to the people of our great state.”
PBMs have come under scrutiny in recent years for practices including owning pharmacies; steering patients away from their preferred pharmacy to PBM-owned pharmacies; requiring patients to engage in “fail first” therapies before being allowed access to medications prescribed by their doctors; and for engaging in “pay to play” tactics with drug makers by requiring legally-sanctioned kickbacks (called “rebates”) for drugs to be covered on patient plan formularies.
For more information about SPAR and its advocacy efforts, see SPARFL.org. For additional in-depth information about how PBM practices are obstructing patient care while driving up costs to consumers and end payers, visit TruthRx.org.
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Monique Whitney
Pharmacists United for Truth & Transparency
media@truthrx.org
