Senate Bill 99 Gains Traction

"There are currently two different PBM reform bills being proposed in the senate, one is the superior AIPA sponsored Senate Bill 99 and the other is the watered down Alabama Pharmacy Association SB93. Asked to explain the stark differences between the two bills, Moore noted "The AIPA bill was drafted by independent pharmacists for community pharmacy. We consulted pharmacists from other states that had recently had meaningful PBM legislation passed. Some of those states include: Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Arkansas. One of the problems with previous legislation in Alabama, was that the document looked good but was deemed unenforceable by the Department of Insurance. We took our bill to the DOI and got their feedback as to the bill's enforceability. So the biggest difference in the two bills SB99 and SB93 is that SB93 is we see the bill as weak on enforceability which leaves pharmacy in the same pickle as it always has been. The second difference is that the reimbursement models used are slightly different. Obviously, we feel that our reimbursement is better for pharmacy."