{"id":533852,"date":"2026-03-20T01:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/533852\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T01:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:33:14","slug":"fight-over-drug-prices-resurfaces-in-louisiana-legislature-local-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/533852\/","title":{"rendered":"Fight over drug prices resurfaces in Louisiana Legislature | Local Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Louisiana lawmakers this week renewed a battle over the cost of prescription drugs<\/a>, advancing a bill that pits independent pharmacists against major health plans and the businesses they use to administer prescription drug benefits.<\/p>\n

The legislation, sponsored by state Rep. Mike Echols, R-Monroe, aims to ensure that Louisiana\u2019s independent pharmacists get paid fairly for the drugs they dispense to patients, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouse Bill 919 is simple. If a pharmacy fills a prescription, they get paid what it costs,\u201d he said during a public hearing on the measure Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The way to do that, Echols says, is to require pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to reimburse independent pharmacists for drugs at a minimum rate set by law \u2014 and to create tougher accountability standards for the companies.<\/p>\n

Opponents, however, argue that guaranteeing a higher rate for independent pharmacists will drive up the cost of drugs for insurers \u2014 and, in turn, raise health insurance premiums.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt increases the cost to patients,\u201d said Rep. Joseph Stagni, R-Kenner.<\/p>\n

What are PBMs, and what\u2019s the debate about?<\/p>\n

Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are companies that administer prescription drug benefits on behalf of health plans.<\/p>\n

They set up formularies, or lists of drugs covered by a plan, and they negotiate lower prices with drug manufacturers on behalf of their health plan clients. Often referred to as middlemen, they\u2019ve come under fire across the country, accused of hiding their business practices, artificially inflating drug costs and pushing local pharmacies out of the market.<\/p>\n

Echols said PBMs rig the market, \u201cdeciding who gets paid and who gets squeezed, too often paying our independent pharmacies less than what it costs to even put the medicine in the bottle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Lopes, a spokesperson for PCMA, the country\u2019s largest PBM trade group, said pharmacists should be paid for clinical services, \u201cbut the state should not dictate payments that would raise costs for Louisiana employers and patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conflict continues a fight in the Legislature last year, when some of the country\u2019s largest health care companies fiercely resisted proposed laws that would benefit Louisiana\u2019s independent pharmacists. CVS, which owns a PBM, even launched a massive public lobbying campaign<\/a> using texts to customers urging them to contact lawmakers in opposition.<\/p>\n

Louisiana sued CVS for its political advocacy and last month settled with the company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This week, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana launched its own campaign against Echols\u2019 bill.<\/p>\n

A March 16 message from Brian Keller, executive vice president and chief growth officer for the company, urged recipients to oppose the measure, saying it would drive up drug costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cContact your legislators TODAY,\u201d the message says.<\/p>\n

It included a script to use with lawmakers: \u201cI ask you to oppose HB 919. It will increase costs for my business and employees. It will add millions of dollars to the cost of prescription drugs in our state and higher out-of-pocket costs at the pharmacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The communication went to brokers and employer groups it works with, but it didn\u2019t go to individual health plan members, a spokesperson for the company said.<\/p>\n

Echols said he asked the Attorney General\u2019s office to look into the advocacy from Blue Cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t manipulate the customers into getting a political outcome,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Blue Cross said, \u201cThe proposed legislation increases healthcare expenses for Louisiana businesses and residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunicating with our contracted brokers and our employer group customers with facts about the potential effects that legislation under consideration could have on their healthcare costs is a duty that we owe them, not to mention protected speech by the First Amendment,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

What would the bill do?<\/p>\n

HB919 would do several different things. Among those, it would establish a minimum rate that PBMs would have to reimburse independent pharmacies for the professional service of dispensing drugs to patients.<\/p>\n

Under the measure, the \u201cprofessional dispensing fee\u201d would be $12 for each prescription.<\/p>\n

Currently, state law doesn\u2019t mandate a professional dispensing fee amount. It just says PBMs need to reimburse pharmacies based on three factors: an ingredient price based on a national benchmark, a price markup for a given class of drugs, and a professional dispensing fee.<\/p>\n

Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple, under pressure from independent pharmacists, in February issued an agency rule setting a minimum reimbursement rate: the benchmark ingredient price plus $9 for each prescription. Both a price markup and a dispensing fee are part of the $9 minimum.<\/p>\n

Express Scripts, earlier this month, sued Temple to block that rate, saying the insurance commissioner doesn\u2019t have legal authority to set it, and the rule interferes with the company\u2019s contractual obligations. Temple in legal filings rejected those arguments.<\/p>\n

The Blue Cross Blue Shield email said the proposed $12 dispensing fee \u201crepresents a more than 800% increase in the current dispense fee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louisiana Independent Pharmacies Association President and CEO Randal Johnson argued in favor of the new rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth care providers should be paid the cost to acquire and dispense the drug,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The measure would also require PBMs to retroactively pay pharmacists for any payments that fell short of the state\u2019s minimum rates over the last year, and it would forbid passing that expense on to health plans.<\/p>\n

It would also set a higher legal and ethical standard for pharmacy benefit managers. They\u2019d owe a fiduciary duty to their health plan clients, a higher bar than the duty of \u201cgood faith, honesty, trust, confidence and candor\u201d currently required under law.<\/p>\n

The legislation would also set tougher penalties when PBMs break the law. An employee who knowingly under-reimburses a pharmacist or provides false reports to the Department of Insurance could be charged with a crime. And there\u2019d be no cap on damages in lawsuits against a PBM for violations related to pharmacy under-reimbursement.<\/p>\n

Vertical integration<\/p>\n

The original version of the Echols\u2019 legislation sought to prohibit companies that own pharmacy benefit managers from also owning retail pharmacies.<\/p>\n

That \u201cvertical integration\u201d of various parts of the drug supply chain has come under scrutiny recently, with critics saying the model squeezes out competition and drives up drug costs.<\/p>\n

Some giant health care companies control multiple parts of the health and drug supply chain. CVS, for example, owns an insurance business, PBM and retail pharmacies. So do UnitedHealth Group and Cigna.<\/p>\n

Last year, lawmakers in Louisiana tried to ban PBM vertical integration, sparking a heated debate. The effort, pushed by Gov. Jeff Landry and opposed by CVS, ultimately failed.<\/p>\n

At the time, CVS told customers it would be forced to close more than 100 of its Louisiana pharmacies, prompting the Legislature to hold off on the change.<\/p>\n

That fear surfaced again on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Tehmi Chassion, D-Lafayette, a pharmacist, said local drug stores Walmart and Walgreens have closed where he lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy worry and concern is just that we may lose these pharmacies and now I\u2019ve got a pharmacy desert,\u201d Chassion said.<\/p>\n

Echols agreed to set aside the proposed vertical integration ban on PBM ownership of pharmacies while a similar law in Arkansas faces a challenge in federal court.<\/p>\n

\u201cLegislators did the right thing by rejecting a policy that would force pharmacies to close and would cause significant disruptions for patients accessing their medications,\u201d Lopes, the PBM trade group spokesperson, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louisiana lawmakers this week renewed a battle over the cost of prescription drugs, advancing a bill that pits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[8803,97,252,253],"class_list":["post-533852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-hardwall","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}