AHIP, PhRMA Try to Control Narrative as Heat on PBMs Intensifies

The health insurer trade group AHIP recently unveiled a new advertising campaign that accuses the pharmaceutical industry of deflecting blame for its “price-gouging” practices and undermining the “evidence-based, market-driven tools” that health insurers use to keep drug costs in check. But the campaign doesn’t appear to mention PBMs, even though they’re the ones conducting drug-price negotiations with manufacturers on behalf of health plans and employers.

Health care industry observers say that omission is unsurprising since PBMs are currently facing a growing wave of scrutiny — scrutiny that insurers likely want to minimize even if they don’t want to lobby for that explicitly. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), meanwhile, pounced on the opportunity to call out what it sees as the unspoken, PBM-supporting message in AHIP’s new campaign.

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