By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Riverton’s Curry’s Family Pharmacy hosted both U.S. senators Tuesday. Pharmacy benefit managers, which have grown rapidly as a kind of middleman and seizing the mail-order prescription market, have the lawmakers’ attention.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said, “I have co sponsored the PBM Transparency Act, which is going to look at the practices the PBM employs, to include the clawbacks of the cost of prescription medication that are really harmful to independent pharmacies” such as Curry’s in Riverton, which hosted the senators and pharmacy students for a roundtable discussion.
“More transparancy!” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill..) chimed in. “Let’s find out what their role is and whether it’s a legitimate role that really makes America healthier and prescribing drugs safer.”
Durbin and Duckworth were in town to celebrate passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and discuss how it is meant to keep healthcare costs down.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]
