PhRMA re­news phar­ma­cy ben­e­fits man­ag­er cam­paign as Con­gres­sion­al scruti­ny heats up

A man in a blue suit snatch­es away a woman’s pa­per pre­scrip­tion at the phar­ma­cy counter in PhRMA’s lat­est sal­vo aimed at mid­dle­men.

Who is he ex­act­ly? He’s an in­sur­ance com­pa­ny’s phar­ma­cy ben­e­fit man­ag­er (PBM), and as he says to the woman in the video, “I de­cide which med­i­cines you can get … And I don’t make as much mon­ey off this one. Hope you feel bet­ter.”

The ad is the third in PhRMA’s cam­paign se­ries high­light­ing the role of PBMs, with the lat­est com­ing as the Sen­ate health com­mit­tee led by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Bill Cas­sidy (R-LA) pre­pares to work on new drug pric­ing leg­is­la­tion that in­cludes in­creas­ing over­sight and trans­paren­cy around PBMs. While slat­ed to be­gin to­day, the work was pushed back to next week over process con­cerns by some com­mit­tee mem­bers.

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