DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — Independent pharmacies across Illinois are breathing easier as the Illinois legislature throws a lifeline with a bipartisan bill reforming Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs.
PBMs are the middlemen between insurance companies and pharmacies. Pharmacies have claimed PBMs are keeping prescription drug prices high while driving smaller pharmacies out of business.
“There have been independent pharmacies hanging on by a thread for the last couple of years,” Lauren Young of Dale’s Southlake Pharmacy in Decatur told WAND News. “Over 80 pharmacies closed across the state of Illinois last year alone, including one of our pharmacies.”
The reform measure will force more transparency by PBMs and stiffen regulations as to how they operate. PBMs steering business from independent pharmacies to their own pharmacies will be greatly reduced.
The measure only had one no vote in each chamber of the legislature. It is now heading to Governor Pritzker’s desk where he is expected to sign it into law.
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