A hard-hitting report released by the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, alleges that CVS Health leveraged its market power to suppress competition in ways that may violate federal antitrust law. The report is having an immediate impact on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Trade Commission, as Congress considers sweeping PBM reform as part of the minibus. 

The report, titled “When CVS Writes the Rules: How CVS Protects Itself From Innovation and Competition,” was released January 21 and lays out evidence that the Committee staff say show how PBMs stifle competition, a long-held concern from Congress.  

Here are four of the most surprising findings from the report:

 

  1. Internal documents show CVS changed its network rules to block competitors.
    According to the Judiciary Committee’s interim findings, CVS Health learned how “hub” pharmacy models operate and then changed CVS’s rules to impact how those hubs could work, which prevented hubs from offering more choices and lower costs to patients. The committee focused on this action as harming innovation, raising costs,  and using contracts to block alternative options.
  2. The committee says conduct “may have violated the antitrust laws.”
    The report states that internal documents show CVS Health learned how hub models worked and then used its power to impact competitor access which may have a legal impact.  The committee wrote that “it is possible that CVS Health’s conduct violated the antitrust laws,” a finding that suggests further action is possible.
  3. Democrats were quick to join in the criticism of CVS
    Lawmakers of both parties criticized the report’s findings. Republican Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has long questioned PBM market power, but Democratic lawmakers also blasted CVS in public statements. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D.,-Ny.) wrote on X that the committee’s findings show “a company using monopoly power to stifle competition and hurt independent pharmacies.” Similarly, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) tweeted that the report underscores why Congress must act “to protect patients and community pharmacies from anticompetitive conduct.” Hill observers will note that it is rare for a House Judiciary Report to get bipartisan praise.
  4. The FTC called the findings “deeply concerning.”
    Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson responded to the Judiciary Committee’s report by calling its findings “deeply concerning,” showing how serious the report is and how it could be treated by the agency responsible for stopping anticompetitive actions. The FTC has already taken serious action against PBMs.

A Hill source told us, “this report is just the start, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time for PBMs. The insurance executives were just grilled. Congress is about to finally pass PBM reform. And this report is going to give firepower to the members who want to take further action to stop this anticompetitive behavior.