NCPA files brief defending Oklahoma PBM law
By HME News Staff
Updated 10:10 AM CDT, Wed October 19, 2022
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The National Community Pharmacists Association, the American Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, along with American Pharmacies and the Oklahoma Pharmacists Association, have filed an amicus curiae brief defending the rights of states to pass and enforce laws protecting patients and community pharmacies from pharmacy benefit manager practices. In 2019, the Oklahoma legislature passed the Patient’s Right to Pharmacy Choice Act to protect access to pharmacy providers and protect those pharmacies from PBMs. The new law was soon challenged in court by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association. In early April, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ruled largely in favor of the state of Oklahoma and Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready, upholding most of the Oklahoma statute against a federal preemption challenge. PCMA appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, asserting that only four of the provisions are preempted by ERISA and Medicare Part D. The joint amicus brief notes that, “The law at issue here, the Oklahoma Patient’s Right to Pharmacy Choice Act, addresses a subset of the business practices of PBMs that have inhibited safe, cost-effective and convenient access to pharmacy care.”
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