An Iowa legislator is trying to keep pharmacies safe from unfair treatment given by insurance providers and drug manufacturers.

Senate File 383 is a piece of legislation that essentially places new regulations on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which are the middlemen to insurance providers and drug manufacturers. According to Iowa District 14 Senator Sarah Trone-Garriott, PBMs are taking money out of the system to make huge profits and explaining to pharmacies they won’t cover the necessary funds to dispense certain medications. 

She says that this maneuver impacts small pharmacies as some of them can’t release certain drugs to their patients because they’d be too expensive. Trone-Garriott tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the bill seeks to address harmful practices set out by PBMs, but identifies an obstacle standing in the way.

“What PBMs have promised is there just going to pass that cost-spend along to the premium payers. So if a business is (a) self-insured union, they are going to see increases in their premiums for their members and that’s going to increase cost on the people of Iowa, and so that’s a great concern.”

Trone-Garriott reassures residents that she is doing her best to keep rural pharmacies open, acknowledging that she proposed an amendment to attempt to lower the cost rises in hopes of protecting the entities, but that it did not pass. She describes that the original bill needs to advance through the House before reaching Governor Kim Reynolds desk for a signature into law.