Arkansas signed into law that PBM’s cannot run pharmacies in that state
https://ncpa.org/newsroom/qam/2025/04/17/arkansas-law-bans-state-permits-pbm-owned-pharmacies-effective-2026
https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2025/04/16/pbm-cvs-unitedhealth-cigna-arkansas-conflict-medicines-pharma-pharmacy/
Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law this week a new state rule: if you own a PBM, you cannot run pharmacies in her state. This is HUGE. Many of you have probably been trapped in this cobweb: you have an insurance company, they force you to use Express Scripts, Optum, or CVS Caremark. Or they require you to fill meds at a CVS. Or you cannot use Walmart (talking to you Tricare). This has become such an issue that patients are getting 30 day fills of meds denied and insurance/PBM is requiring them to do 90 day fills at mail order pharmacies. My disdain for mail order pharmacies is a whole separate post. But I will say that when the USPS isn’t running properly (like during a blizzard), patients meds get stuck and we are scrambling to find a local pharmacy to fill the meds on an emergency basis, and insurance will sometimes deny paying for the fill because they already “paid” for that 90 day fills stuck in the mail system that they mandated be mail order filled.
Who gets hurt here? The local owned pharmacy. Much like the goal to wipe out independent practices, they want independent pharmacies shut down too. Can’t have any free thinkers out there! They want everyone working for the corporate model.
So thank you Sarah Huckabee Sanders for taking the lead and making a positive change for Arkansas. The independent pharmacies will no longer suffer from PBM’s charging them huge amounts of money for the same drug that their “preferred” CVS gets for pennies on the dollar plus huge kickbacks for. No more diverting patients to the “insurance preferred pharmacy”. Coming back is the freedom of choice to choose YOUR pharmacy that works best for you.
Now we have 49 other states that need to follow suit.
The day after this law was signed, CVS already made their decision. They would rather their PBM’s stay in Arkansas and are closing their pharmacies. All about the patient, right? Nope. All about their wallet.
Yay for Sarah Huckabee Sanders❣️❣️
Where is the Federal Trade Commission demanding the elimination of this monopoly? The PBM insisting you only fill prescriptions at THEIR pharmacies doesn't count? Sounds like the coal mining companies issuing their own "script" (instead of dollars) so the miners had to shop at the Company Store. We are nothing more than bard yard commodities to the Medical Corporations. Fleece us and then engineer our deaths before we become a Cost Center. Viva Arkansas!