The Alabama Department of Insurance (DOI) is creating a new pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) compliance division, DOI commissioner Mark Fowler announced on Wednesday.
Governor Kay Ivey signed legislation regulating PBMs into law in April.
Fowler told lawmakers at a budget hearing on Wednesday the new law significantly expands the authority of the department in PBM regulatory work.
“It cleared up a question as to the department’s authority to fully enforce the Pharmacy Audit Integrity Act,” Fowler said. “Now, let me say that our department takes this new authority extremely seriously, and it has been putting all the necessary pieces in place to fully enforce compliance with all provisions of the PBM Act. We have spent countless hours in countless meetings with consultants, stakeholders, and stakeholder groups in preparation to make sure we get this right. We’re devoting resources and personnel, and it will touch several of our divisions and many of our employees at some level in our activity in regard to fully enforce the new PBM law.”
Fowler said DOI was creating a new Pharmacy Benefit Manager compliance division and would be assigning staff to that division soon.
“We’re taking it seriously. We’re doing what it takes to understand what you’ve asked us to do,” Fowler told lawmakers.
Josh Hardin, owner of Mills Pharmacy and chairman of legislative affairs with the Alabama Independent Pharmacy Alliance, told 1819 News on Wednesday he was “cautiously optimistic” about the new PBM compliance division.
“We need them to recognize these characters aren’t acting in good faith, essentially. I don’t get the impression that DOI is at all opposed to going after these companies. After all the discussions over the last year, I think they recognize how much of an anti-competitive issue it is. I think they see what’s going on. I think they get it,” Hardin said.
UPDATE: After publication of this story, Robin Stone, Executive Director of the Alliance of Alabama Healthcare Consumers, a group that opposed the new PBM legislation, said in a statement to 1819 News, “The Department of Insurance has a longstanding history of professionalism and fairness in its regulation and oversight of Alabama’s insurance market.”
“The total cost of this legislation will eventually fall on employers that provide healthcare benefits to their workforce. We have full confidence that the department will continue to focus on ensuring that Alabama’s consumers are protected,” Stone said.
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