Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association<\/em>, the\u00a0attorneys\u00a0general argue that, in order to protect the well-being of consumers,\u00a0states should be free to act as needed, depending on a state’s circumstances, to regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PBMs\u00a0act as\u00a0gate-keepers\u00a0between pharmacies, drug manufacturers, health insurance plans, and consumers\u00a0for access to prescription drugs.\u00a0The brief filed argues that regulation of PBMs is a matter for state authority in protecting the access to and affordability of prescription drugs.<\/p>\n\u201cPatients deserve access to affordable, quality prescription drugs,\u201d said Attorney General DeWine. \u201cWhile our office continues to work with outside counsel to aggressively investigate and pursue potential litigation against PBMs, we believe it is important also to support other states in defense of their rights to enact laws regulating and reforming this industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2015, Arkansas implemented a law that regulated\u00a0PBMs\u00a0by setting standards for generic drug prices. Under the law,\u00a0PBMs\u00a0must raise their reimbursement rate for a drug if that rate falls below the pharmacy\u2019s wholesale costs. The law also created an appeals\u00a0process\u00a0for pharmacies to challenge\u00a0these\u00a0reimbursement rates. The law was challenged by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which argued that\u00a0the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) prevents the\u00a0State of Arkansas from implementing the law.\u00a0Arkansas has asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0attorneys\u00a0general argue in today’s filing that\u00a0state laws regulating pharmacy benefit managers are not restricted by federal law. Regulation is critical to the states\u2019 ability to improve the transparency of prescription drug marketplaces and to protect consumers\u2019 access to affordable prescription drugs, especially those\u00a0in underserved,\u00a0rural and isolated\u00a0communities. In addition, the\u00a0attorneys\u00a0general\u00a0assert\u00a0that\u00a0the regulation of PBMs\u00a0promotes\u00a0healthcare access and affordability, taking away\u00a0a state\u2019s\u00a0ability to regulate would create confusion and uncertainty in the market\u00a0and\u00a0harm\u00a0patients.<\/p>\n
Attorney General DeWine\u00a0joined the California attorney general and attorneys general from\u00a0Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska,\u00a0Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia in submitting this amicus brief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Submitted information COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine joined a bipartisan coalition of 32\u00a0attorneys\u00a0general in filing an\u00a0amicus brief\u00a0in the United States Supreme Court supporting states\u2019 rights to regulate and\u00a0address\u00a0the rising cost of prescription drugs to ensure access to affordable prescription drugs. In\u00a0Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, the\u00a0attorneys\u00a0general argue that, in order to protect […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 10:50:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}