VIDEO: Budzinski Calls Out Predatory Drug Middlemen for Squeezing Out Rural Community Pharmacists

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) spoke from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in honor of Rural Health Month to call out predatory drug middlemen called Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) for squeezing out rural community pharmacists through unfair and anticompetitive business practices.

WATCH: Budzinski Calls Out Predatory Drug Middlemen on House Floor

Earlier this month, Congresswoman Budzinski hosted a roundtable with independent pharmacists, pharmacy students and faculty at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) School of Pharmacy to discuss PBMs. One local pharmacist who spoke at the roundtable was Michelle Dyer, the owner of Michelle’s Pharmacy in Carlinville, IL. In 2009, Michelle expanded her business to Gillespie and in 2016, she opened a pharmacy in Bunker Hill – a community that had been without pharmacy service for over 25 years. However, as PBMs consolidated and poached patients from independent pharmacies like hers, Michelle was forced to sell her businesses in 2021, leaving three rural towns in Macoupin County without access to a reliable pharmacy.

Under the current system, PBMs act as middlemen between manufacturers, insurers and pharmacies – inflating drug prices at the expense of patients with complex rebate and pricing structures. In Illinois and across the country, PBMs have forced independent pharmacies to close by steering patients to PBM-affiliated pharmacies and excluding in-network pharmacies from filling prescriptions. 

Congresswoman Budzinski is a cosponsor of the bipartisan Pharmacists Fight Back Act, which would remove the ability of PBMs to restrict patient choice through network exclusions and protects community pharmacists by prohibiting PBMs from steering patients toward PBM-affiliated pharmacies. She is also a cosponsor of the Drug Price Transparency in Medicaid Act and voted to help pass the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, both of which would ban spread pricing and require price transparency for PBMs.

Budzinski’s remarks can be found below: 

“I rise today to celebrate Rural Health Month and bring attention to rural health care challenges.  

In the communities that I’m so proud to represent in Central and Southern Illinois, independent pharmacies are a lifeline.

But for too long, predatory drug middlemen called PBMs have squeezed independent pharmacies out of business through their unfair, anti-competitive practices.

I recently hosted a roundtable where I heard from several independent pharmacists throughout my district, including Michelle Dyer, the owner of Michelle’s Pharmacy in Carlinville, Illinois. In 2022, as PBMs consolidated, she was forced to close multiple locations of her business, leaving three rural towns in Macoupin County without access to a reliable pharmacy. 

Our conversation made clear that we must take action to rein in PBMs who have gone unchecked for far too long. We must pass the Pharmacists Fight Back Act to provide the transparency, accountability and guardrails we need to protect independent pharmacists and support the health of our rural communities.”

###