Ed Silverman , 2025-04-16 22:24:00
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders has signed a first-in-the-nation law that prohibits pharmacy benefit managers from operating both retail and mail-order pharmacies, a move designed to eliminate a conflict of interest that has been blamed for boosting the price of medicines and forcing independent pharmacies to close.
At issue is an ongoing concern that the largest pharmacy benefit managers — which are controlled by CVS Health, Cigna, and UnitedHealth Group — favor their own pharmacy operations. Critics say that by doing so, these companies not only dominate the design of health plans for tens of millions of Americans, but also distort the distribution and pricing for prescription medicines.
Their pharmacy benefit managers — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx — processed nearly 80% of the roughly 6.6 billion prescriptions dispensed by U.S. pharmacies in 2023, according to a recent report by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. In addition to a mail-order pharmacy, CVS Health also owns the CVS chain of drug stores. There are 23 outlets in Arkansas, according to the company.
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