Most Favor PBM Rules | 2023 Annual Managed Healthcare Executive Pharmacy Survey
Aside most of the 311 respondents to the 2023 Annual Managed Healthcare Executive Pharmacy Survey favoring PBMs, two-thirds indicated they favor restrictions on rebates and discounts so PBMs won’t favor drugs with high discounts. A similar proportion favor transparency rules that would require disclosure of rebates and discounts.
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are coming under scrutiny in Washington these days, and bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate that would ban certain practices (such as spread pricing), create new regulations and require much greater disclosure of their business practice.
By a sizable majority, most of the 311 respondents to the 2023 Annual Managed Healthcare Executive Pharmacy Survey favor reining in PBMs. Two-thirds (66%) indicated that they favor restrictions on rebates and discounts so PBMs won’t favor drugs with high discounts. A similar proportion (63%) favor transparency rules that would require disclosure of rebates and discounts. The PBMs have long argued that some secrecy about rebates and discounts is needed for them to bargain effectively.
The online survey was conducted Feb. 14-28. The respondents were spread fairly evenly across the various sectors of the U.S. healthcare industry, with 20% self-identifying as working for hospitals, 22% for physician practices, 19% for pharmacy benefit managers, 16% for payer organizations, 13% for drug and device manufacturers and the rest in a variety of sectors.
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