Published in Drug Topics
If signed into law, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 (HR 7148) gives the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) the power to regulate pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) contracting while also disincentivizing them from driving up the list prices of drugs.
“It’s really taking almost a 180 when it comes to what CMS’ role is expected to be in the pharmacy-PBM relationship,” Jesse Dresser, Esq, partner in the Life Sciences Department and head of the Pharmacy Practice Group at Frier Levitt Attorneys at Law, told Drug Topics.
“They’re going from basically a hands-off approach of ‘We can’t interfere, we’re not going to interfere,’ to ‘[Our] responsibility is to make sure things are fair between the PBMs and the pharmacies, and here are the tools to get it done.’”
Read more: https://www.drugtopics.com/view/cms-to-begin-enforcing-fair-pharmacy-reimbursement-contracting
