Gov. DeSantis ends pharmacy benefit inaction, signs PBM legislation he championed

Just hours after legislators passed it, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law another of his top priorities — an attempt to rein in drug costs by putting new limits on third-party groups that insurers use to manage prescription drug costs.

DeSantis signed the law in Jupiter outside the limelight of Tallahassee where the bill was heavily lobbied by pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmacists, and insurers. Past efforts to go after the third-party middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have been derailed or watered down in the Legislature.

But the backing of DeSantis ensured that the final bill sailed through the Legislature. And despite it being backed by the Governor, whose priorities often rankle Democrats, it passed both chambers unanimously.

Prescription drug costs continue to increase and DeSantis said there’s a variety of reasons for that.

“PBMs are one part of it. There’s a lot of money being spent, not a lot of value being returned to consumers, and making it more difficult for small businesses to operate,” DeSantis said. The Governor said the new law will prevent what he called “problematic practices,” including narrow networks and steering patients to pharmacies PBMs have a financial stake in.

It was one of the more heavily lobbied bills of the 2023 Session. Opponents argued that eliminating PBMs’ ability to keep pharmacy networks narrow would cause an increase in health insurance costs. Proponents countered by saying that states that have passed similar legislation haven’t seen skyrocketing health insurance costs as the insurers and PBMs claim.

DeSantis on Wednesday scoffed at the notion that the law could increase health insurance costs saying “I don’t know that that could happen because they are making money. But they were saying a lot of stuff.”

The Governor was joined by Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida and Department of Elder Affairs Secretary Michelle Branham, among others.

Weida said the new law will bring needed transparency and accountability to the “pharmaceutical industrial complex.”

“PBMs have dodged much-needed transparency for far too long. Floridians deserve better. They deserve better than unnecessary markups that line the pockets of big pharma. And today the Governor is going to codify the most comprehensive legislation in Florida history to rein the prescription drug industry in,” said Weida, whose agency will be responsible for posting new reportable information regarding certain prescription drug cost increases.

This marks DeSantis’ second major effort to lower drug prices after a much-touted approach of importing drugs from Canada has failed to get off the ground amid stalled approval coming from the federal government. DeSantis touched on those efforts during the press conference, noting that Florida was the first state to take advantage of a law that could allow for the importation of drugs from Canada.

Florida submitted its proposal during the final weeks of the Trump administration but it hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration under the Biden administration.

“They say they’re not sure it’s safe to purchase drugs from Canada,” DeSantis said of the delay in approval. “Meanwhile, they’ll approve a jab for a six-year-old baby with an MRNA COVID shot with almost no data to support that. They don’t care about the safety there but somehow they are so concerned that if we just purchase drugs from a different market that that’s going to be a major safety concern in the United States. And, of course, that’s not true. They’re just running interference for the pharmaceutical companies because obviously if we have to buy it here it’s way more expensive. it’s the same drug.”

DeSantis said his administration is battling the Biden administration in court over the Canadian drug importation program and that people need to “stay tuned.”