Lawmakers consider bill to let pharmacies refuse fills when PBM reimbursement is below acquisition cost

The committee heard long, sometimes heated testimony on Senate Bill 247, which would prohibit network exclusion for pharmacies that refuse to dispense a prescription when the PBM reimbursement is below the pharmacy’s acquisition cost.

Representative Brian Cole introduced the measure, saying the bill addresses practices by pharmacy benefit managers that leave some independent pharmacists forced to dispense medications at a loss. "Pharmacists don't have to sell a prescription below their cost," Cole told the committee, offering the bill as a compromise to protect local pharmacies.

Independent pharmacists and owners described examples where PBM-set reimbursement could be below the wholesale or acquisition cost for a drug. “We’re talking prescriptions that cost anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500 that we're being underpaid anywhere from $50 to $200 on,” said Glenn Peralta, owner of Colonial Pharmacy, who urged reinstating language the Senate removed that would have allowed pharmacists to charge the patient the difference between acquisition cost and PBM reimbursement.

The leg…