Proposed state legislation seeks to address the dire Oregon pharmacy landscape by giving more power to drugstores when dealing with pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. These companies, created to help customers more easily navigate buying medicine, act like middlemen between pharmacies and insurers. A PBM can decide how much a drugstore is paid for filling a prescription.
But pharmacists say that reimbursement is often too low, contributing to drug stores losing money and closing.
Jeff Harrell, CEO of Cascadia Pharmacy Group, which includes seven pharmacies in Southern Oregon, said reimbursement rates by PBMs have been “egregious.”…