Congress is exploring major changes to the healthcare industry

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation in the House and Senate yesterday aimed at breaking up companies that own health insurers or pharmacy-benefit managers and also have a pharmacy business. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), would force such companies to divest their pharmacy businesses within three years.

💥 The potential impact: If approved, it would mark Congress’ most far-reaching intervention into the operations of pharmacy-benefit managers (PBMs), or third-party companies that manage prescription drug benefits for health insurance plans and use their wholesale power to negotiate rebates with drugmakers.

• America’s three biggest PBMs – CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealthGroup’s OptumRx – belong to companies that also own some of the largest health insurers and distribute medicines through their own mail-order pharmacies.