Arkansas doctor urges law to stop PBMs from excluding local pharmacies; sponsor pulls bill for edits

Sen. Clint Penzo opened discussion of Senate Bill 103, saying the measure aims to "expand access to care" by updating Arkansasany-willing-provider rules so pharmacies that meet a networkproviders terms cannot be arbitrarily excluded from PBM specialty networks.

Simon David (Highlands Oncology Group) testified as an oncology provider that writes multiple prescriptions per patient and described patients who cannot access medicines when local pharmacies are excluded from specialty networks. "If we don't expand access to care, no matter how many pharmacies that we have in the state, If they can't join the networks that the PBMs control, patients cannot get their medications," he said.

David told the committee that PBMs often create carve-out specialty networks that include only the PBM-owned mail-order pharmacy, forcing prescriptions out of state and creating delivery failures and lost opportunities for pharmacist counseling. "These networks only have 1 option customarily, and that is the mail order pharmacy owned by the PBM company," he…