In any debate, you have to choose a side. With drug pricing, we are for affordability. When Arkansas Governor Sanders and Act 624 limit pharmacy choice to special interests alone, prices go up.
In a recent New York Times essay, the Governor showed how her new law is choosing winners and losers and rewarding special interests. Out-of-state competitors are disadvantaged. In-state competitors, including Walmart, would handsomely benefit from the closures of pharmacies owned by us and others. The losers are the people of Arkansas who will pay more.
There’s another winner: Big Pharma, which will also benefit from a weakened PBM guardrail. President Trump and companies like ours have been calling for drugmakers to lower drug prices in America. Act 624 makes drugs more expensive, which is why drugmakers are championing the bill’s passage.
The Governor signed legislation that aims to close 23 CVS Pharmacy locations in the state, disrupting care for 340,000 residents, and will cost millions more in drug costs as CVS pharmacy is the lowest cost provider in the state. In addition, our specialty pharmacy won’t be able to serve 10,000 of the most at-risk patients in the state, people with cancer, HIV, and rare diseases.
Those are facts. Here are others.
PBMs make prescription drugs more affordable. PBMs are the last line of defense between drugmakers that want to charge a lot of money, and the American businesses, unions, health plans, and government agencies that want to provide good benefits to people. Last year alone, CVS Caremark delivered $45 billion in savings from America’s drug bill. Governor Sanders knows we do our job, and we get hired to do more to help people save money, prevent dangerous drug-to-drug interactions, provide broad access to medicine, and stand up to Big Pharma. We do our job well.
Drugmakers charge Americans more for the same drugs they sell for less abroad. We applaud President Trump’s stance on lowering the cost of drugs in the U.S. He recognizes that it’s unfair that drugmakers charge Americans more than anyone else. A single medication can be many times more expensive here than in other large industrialized countries for no other reason than to increase drugmaker profits.
We work with independent pharmacies. CVS Caremark actively and successfully works with independent pharmacies. In Arkansas, independent pharmacies make up 45 percent of the pharmacy market in the state. In contrast, CVS Pharmacy represents 3 percent. CVS Caremark pays independent pharmacies, on average, more than CVS Pharmacy. One state representative who co-sponsored this law owns 13 pharmacies by himself. Customers come to CVS Pharmacy because of the convenience, cost, and care they receive. We compete on those three core competencies every day, and we succeed when our experience is better, just like every other business in the country.
Beware “anonymous” patient stories. The Governor shares a story about one anonymous member who says she had a challenge in getting her prescription filled at a community pharmacy. We understand there can be challenges in the health care system and if we make an error, we work immediately to resolve it. The member’s pharmacy network is determined by her employer or health plan, not us. The people who provide benefits to employees and members decide the most cost-effective way to provide broad access to prescription drugs. Our job is to administer the benefit at their direction. We asked the Times if they would secure a release from the patient so we could investigate their experience; they refused.
We will stand up for our customers and employees. Bad policy can’t go unchecked. That’s not panic; that’s advocacy. We did so on behalf of our customers and employees, who let the Governor know she had gone too far. We let our customers know that their trusted community pharmacy would likely have to close, for no other reason than its ownership structure. Once people knew that, they acted, as thousands called and wrote to the Governor. We expect that as Act 624 becomes law, there will be many more who will voice their displeasure. There is no dispute about care or savings we provide the people we serve – only a desire to punish an out of state company. We are not choosing one part of our company over another; we are choosing the communities we serve and our colleagues who serve them.
The Governor is harming the very people she claims to help. She says that she won’t sacrifice veterans, seniors or rural patients. In fact, those are the most impacted by this law. Many of our nation’s fighting force and their beneficiaries receive their low-cost medicines through mail order. If they live in Arkansas, they won’t. Seniors and rural patients will also be deprived of nearby options and convenient delivery services, so that they can drive further to more expensive local pharmacies who need not worry about competition because their Governor is protecting them.
The Governor’s arguments are incorrect. Act 624 is wrong. And so is PhRMA’s anti-PBM advocacy crusade. We understand the desire some would have to reward those who fund campaigns or advertise in a publication, but there should also be some respect and consideration for the one entity that lowers health care costs for all Americans.