EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Marsha Blackburn on PBMs, CVS, and healthcare costs

CVS is the “largest, most vertically integrated company in healthcare,” and the federal government “has quickly become CVS’s largest funder,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) said in a letter to CVS earlier this week, criticizing the company’s role in the prescription drug market and the PBM industry as a whole.

“CVS Health, the fifth largest company in the United States by revenue, owns the second-largest pharmacy benefit manager (Caremark), the largest retail pharmacy chain (CVS), and the third-largest health insurer (Aetna), as well as other subsidiaries that extend into drug manufacturing and rebate aggregation,” Blackburn said.

Today, Blackburn gave the Washington Reporter more context on her work to increase transparency in the prescription drug market.

“The federal government has quickly become CVS’ biggest funder, and CVS has forced Americans to foot the bill for higher health insurance premiums, fraud, overbilling, unsafe practices, and regulatory violations,” she told the Reporter.

When asked if PBM reform could pass this Congress, Blackburn said that “we need to rein in the power of pharmacy benefit managers like CVS Caremark by passing my Patients Before Middlemen Act to drive down health care costs for Americans.”

A Senate source told the Reporter that “while comprehensive healthcare reform is extremely unlikely to pass, the one area where there is widespread, bipartisan agreement is on PBM reform, especially on transparency measures.”

“This is a 99-1 issue, it would likely have some downward pressure on the price of drugs, and there’s a very good chance that Senator Thune gives it floor time to get a win before the elections,” the source added.