SENATOR ALVORD PUSHES BACK ON CONSTANT COST INCREASES OF HEALTH INSURANCE WITH FULL BIPARTISAN SUPPORT

The following information was released by the Oklahoma State Senate:

Legislation designed to protect Oklahomans' pocketbooks and access to their local pharmacies and ensure fair, transparent reimbursement standards advanced this week with strong bipartisan support, passing committee on a 100 vote.

Senate Bill 2074 is authored by Sen. Jerry Alvord, R-Wilson, who also serves as the committee's vice chair. Sen. Alvord took the unusual step of spending significant time walking members through the complexities of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) practices, outlining how opaque rules and contractual structures can disadvantage local community pharmacies and obscure true reimbursement practices.

During the discussion, Sen. Alvord emphasized the real-world impact on Oklahoma communities, noting that three pharmacies in his Senate district have closed in just the past four months.

Committee Chairman Bill Coleman spoke in favor of the measure, while committee members Sen. Reinhardt and Sen. Weaver also voiced support, thanking the author for clearly explaining an issue often made unnecessarily complex by PBMs.

Sen. Reinhardt emphasized that addressing these disparities does not require new costs to be passed on to patients or health plans, noting that the necessary funding already exists within the current system.

"A Tennessee audit found that PBMs were reimbursing their own affiliated pharmacies at dramatically higher rates in some cases more than 16,000 percent higher than independent pharmacies for the same prescription. That tells us the money is already in the system it's just not being distributed fairly," said Sen. Jerry Alvord.

The bill mirrors the reimbursement framework already used in Oklahoma's Medicaid program a system that is familiar, stable, and tested. If enacted, Oklahoma would join at least 14 states that have adopted reimbursement floors and roughly a dozen that require a professional dispensing fee to ensure community pharmacies are paid fairly for the medications and services they provide.

"OPhA wants to thank all of the committee members for their support on this important bill that will strengthen access, protects patients, and restores balance in a marketplace that urgently needs it," said Greg Piatt, Executive Director of Oklahoma Pharmacist Association.