The Illinois Senate has passed a pair of bills that are intended lower prescription drug costs for patients and maintain their access to the medications.
The key bill called the Prescription Drug Affordability Act would target Pharmacy Benefit Managers [PBMs], a so-called middleman, between drug manufacturers, pharmacies and health insurance companies.
Critics said PPMs' goals are focused solely on profit rather than providing the lowest-cost service. The companies are known to use "spread pricing" or up-charging drugs to insurers and health plans more than a pharmacy would need to dispense the medications. They then keep the difference as profit.
Critics said this practice has helped to drive up the cost of prescription drugs.
That is why Democratic state Sen. Dave Koehler, who represents Peoria and Bloomington-Normal, has spent the spring session working with other legislators and Gov. JB Pritzker to negotiate this bill.
This bill would require pharmacy benefit managers to rebate the full cost of medications to all pharmacies and not just those they are affiliated with. These middleman companies are accused of favoring their own pharmacies.
Koehler said the bill would help prevent small, independent pharmacies from closing.
"What we really want to do is not create pharmacy deserts," Koehler said. "This is important to just the whole circle of healthcare needs people have in our communities."
Republican state Sen. Sally Turner who represents parts of Bloomington-Normal, shared her support for the bill on the Senate floor.
"(In) all or parts of my ten counties I represent, this is one of the most important issues that has affected them in their area, the rural communities" Turner said. " It's going to be helpful for them."
The bill would also stop PBMs from limiting coverage to certain medications viewed as specialty, such as shots which need to be cooled at certain temperatures.
The other bill that lawmakers approved focuses on curbing abuse when working with the federal 340B prescription drug program. In 1992, Congress passed a law that requires drug makers to sell their medications medications at a discount to hospitals and pharmacies in underserved and rural areas.
Over the years, pharmaceutical companies have used loopholes to restrict the number of pharmacies a hospital could refer prescriptions to fill.
This avoids the discount and keeps the prescriptions within their network. Dwayne Harold is the chief executive officer of Heartland Health Services based in Peoria. Harold said locally-owned pharmacies have been hit hard.
"For all of Peoria and Pekin... some of them cannot be sustained and the impacts are large and are real and our patients are feeling the pain and the hardship from it," Harold said.
Critics of the bill said healthcare providers need to be more transparent about their finances before they can blame the drug companies.
The bill also addresses this concern by requiring hospitals to share how funds were used in financially assisted care.
The bill to further regulate pharmacy benefit managers passed in the Illinois House on Saturday with a 115-1 vote and heads to the governor's desk for his signature. The bill on the 340B program awaits a final vote.
