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Senate approves pharmacy benefit manager enforcement bill and creates enforcement fund
Summary
House Bill 15‑84, which tightens PBM oversight, creates a PBM enforcement fund and authorizes limited appropriations for initial enforcement staffing, passed the Senate 42‑5 with the emergency clause. Appropriations committee amendments limit initial spending to $1.2 million and three FTEs; a separate fund consolidates existing drug pricing fees.
MADAM PRESIDENT — The Senate passed House Bill 15‑84, a measure aimed at clarifying pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) regulation, establishing an enforcement fund and providing initial funding and staff authority for enforcement.
The bill incorporates earlier PBM reforms, updates definitions to capture rebate aggregators and certain integrated market actors, requires signed pharmacy‑PBM contracts rather than automatic ‘‘silent’’ consent, and sets a licensing and enforcement pathway under the Insurance Commissioner’s office. It also removes language that had unintentionally pulled ERISA self‑funded plans into state regulation.
Senator Dan Dwyer explained the Appropriations Committee’s amendments: rather than the open‑ended hiring originally proposed by policy, the committee directed that fees currently in the drug pricing fund (about $1.7 million) be moved into a new Pharmacy Benefit Manager Enforcement Fund and authorized up to $1.2 million in spending for the next biennium and the hiring of three FTEs (an attorney, a pharmacist and an investigator). The committee also specified the process if the Insurance Commissioner needs additional resources.
Senator Jason Barta, who carried the bill in industry and business, described PBMs as formerly claim processors that have become vertically integrated, opaque and dominant in the market and said the bill provides enforcement authority and transparency tools such as rebate reporting.
On final passage the Senate recorded 42 ayes, 5 nays and the bill passed with the emergency clause; the fiscal note indicates about $1,100,000 in impact.
