House Committee Hearing Targets PBMs, Provider Consolidation

May 19

During a May 17 hearing, PBMs and merging hospitals were in the crosshairs of a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee considering policies to slow the growth of health care prices. Although independent experts called as witnesses agreed with members’ assertions that PBMs, hospital mergers, and hospital purchases of independent physicians exacerbate high health care costs, the experts also pointed out that prices are already too high, and preventing hospital mergers or reining in PBMs will do little to reverse decades of price growth.

The hearing, titled “Why Health Care is Unaffordable: Anticompetitive and Consolidated Markets,” was convened on May 17 by the Health Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. The hearing piled on to the growing momentum across Congress that seems likely to result in more stringent PBM regulations, with majority Republicans tipping support for policies that would rein in PBMs.

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Health Plan Weekly

Peter Johnson

Peter has worked as a journalist since 2011 and has covered health care since 2020. At AIS Health, Peter covers trends in finance, business and policy that affect the health insurance and pharma sectors. For Health Plan Weekly, he covers all aspects of the U.S. health insurance sector, including employer-sponsored insurance, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and the Affordable Care Act individual marketplaces. In Radar on Drug Benefits, Peter covers the operations of (and conflicts between) pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, with a particular focus on pricing dynamics and market access. Before joining AIS Health, Peter covered transportation, public safety and local government for various outlets in Seattle, his hometown and current place of residence. He graduated with a B.A. from Colby College.