SCOTUS Hearing Hints at PBM Win in Case Against State Regs
October 8
Following an Oct. 6 Supreme Court hearing, legal experts tell AIS Health that PBMs appear to have a good shot at prevailing in their challenge of a 2015 Arkansas law, which has major implications for how both health and drug benefits are regulated.
The case, Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), centers on a law known as Act 900 that aimed to protect independent pharmacies from what Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge calls the “abusive payment practices” of PBMs. Chiefly at issue is whether Arkansas can force PBMs to reimburse pharmacies for the price of any given drug set by the pharmacy’s wholesaler, even if that amount is higher than the maximum allowable cost (MAC) set by a PBM.
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