Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announces notices of possible penalties against pharmacy benefit managers; local pharmacies react

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced this week that pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) could face up to $1.47 million in possible fines for not complying with state law.

PBMs were created to negotiate terms for prescription drug costs for millions of Americans but recently they have been under fire by federal officials after a recent report from the Federal Trade Commission claimed these companies “may be profiting by inflating drug costs” while also “squeezing main street pharmacies.”

State law currently states that no pharmacy benefit manager can pay a pharmacy below their cost to purchase a drug and below a fair and reasonable rate on top of that.

State Rep. Brandon Achor (R-Maumelle), who owns Achor Family Pharmacy, said because PBMs weren’t paying that price, a lot of small, independently owned pharmacies stopped being able to fill veteran’s prescriptions.

Achor said entities like Express Scripts and a few others that veterans use haven’t been doing that. He said he’s been in contact with the attorney general and the governor about this issue for a long time now and said this action by the governor is one he hoped she’d take.

“It’s encouraging to see her take such a stout position for Arkansas providers and the end user in this is the patient and their access so for her to be this engaged and her office be this engaged,” Achor said. ” It’s extremely encouraging.”

FOX 16 News reached out for a statement from Express Scripts, one of the main PBMs Achor said impacts his pharmacy, but has not yet heard back.

Previously, Express Scripts argued that it worked to make sure customers had access to multiple nearby pharmacy options, claiming that 95% of its Arkansas beneficiaries are within 15 minutes of an in-network option.

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