HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talked about PBM negotiations Sept. 4 at a Senate Finance Committee hearing. Photo: Senate Finance Committee
The administration of President Donald Trump is moving ahead with efforts to bring down U.S. prescription prices and make sure pharmacy benefit managers are helping with that, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing.
Kennedy, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., that the PBM issue is a priority for Trump.
"He talks to me about it, I would say, at least once a week, sometimes at 11 at night," Kennedy said.
"We have met with the PBMs, and we are in talks with them," Kennedy said. "The PBMs have committed to us to transparency, to some protocol that will guarantee transparency."
The Trump administration has also been talking to the pharmaceutical companies about the PBM issue, along with other prescription drug cost issues, and the pharmaceutical companies are keenly interested in the cost and transparency of PBM services, Kennedy added.
"So, I think we're doing a lot on the PBMs," Kennedy said.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked Kennedy for support for a PBM bill she and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced in the previous Congress.
The priority should be "making certain that PBMs do not profit above what is their standard service fee and that they have to disclose all their pricing," Blackburn said.
Kennedy said he would support the PBM bill.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Kennedy for support for a bipartisan bill that would require companies that advertise prescription drugs on television to discuss the price of the drugs, in an effort to keep drug companies from using TV ads to increase use high-cost drugs.
HHS is already working on a proposal for that issue, Kennedy said.
The backdrop: The Senate Finance Committee held the hearing to review Trump administration health care policy priorities.
Most of the discussion at the hearing focused on Kennedy's efforts to change the direction of medical research and the teams that help shape federal vaccination policy.
But the Trump administration has also announced efforts to change the rules for PBMs, and that was the commercial health insurance issue that got the most attention.
Also at the hearing: Kennedy said the Trump administration has taken action to expand access to telehealth services and improve the procedures insurers use to provide prior authorization for proposed health care treatment strategies.
Wyden argued that Medicaid changes included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, changes in Affordable Care Act public exchange enrollment rules and looming reductions in ACA premium tax credit subsidies will backfire and end up increasing what commercial health coverage buyers, including employers, pay for coverage.
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