ATLANTA, GA - Attorney General Chris Carr today joined a bipartisan coalition of 44 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court supporting states’ ability to address the rising cost of prescription drugs. In Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, the attorneys general argue that states regulate pharmacy benefit managers, (also known as PBMs) to protect consumers and promote access to affordable healthcare. PBMs act as middlemen between pharmacies, drug manufacturers, health insurance plans, and consumers, which empowers them to potentially manipulate the market in ways that inflate prescription drug prices and otherwise harm consumers. For this reason, nearly every state has enacted laws that regulate PBMs in some way, including 44 new or amended laws in the last five years. Today’s brief supports the state of Arkansas’ position that federal law does not preempt those efforts to protect consumers from the harmful practices of PBMs. 

“State laws regulating pharmacy benefit managers are not preempted by federal law, and they are critical to our ability to improve the transparency of prescription drug marketplaces and to protect consumers’ access to affordable prescription drugs – especially those in underserved, rural and isolated communities,” said Attorney General Chris Carr.

In 2015, the state of Arkansas implemented a law that regulated the reimbursement rates PBMs pay to pharmacies. Under the law, PBMs must raise their reimbursement rate for a drug if that rate falls below the pharmacy’s wholesale costs. The law also created an appeals process for pharmacies to challenge these reimbursement rates. The law was challenged by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, a PBM trade association, which argued that the Employment Retirement Income Security Act preempts Arkansas’s law. Arkansas has asked the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court judgment that held the law invalid.

In filing today's brief, Attorney General Carr joins the attorneys general of: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.