Louisiana
Inside the battle over prescription drug prices and pharmacies in the Louisiana Legislature
Independent pharmacies gained the upper hand Wednesday against pharmacy benefit managers following a behind-the-scenes lobbying battle over what has been one of the biggest unsettled policy issues in the final days of the regular legislative session.
The outcome could affect everyone in Louisiana who buys prescription drugs, especially those who purchase specialty drugs that treat such maladies as diabetes, neuropathy and inattention or hyperactivity.
Pharmacy benefit managers are third-party companies that are supposed to negotiate lower drug prices by acting as middlemen between drug manufacturers, insurance companies and pharmacies. Critics say that pharmacy benefit managers pocket too much of the savings.
A measure passed Wednesday by the Senate Insurance Committee, House Bill 264, favored independent pharmacies by prohibiting pharmacy benefit managers from steering customers to pharmacies they own and by mandating that discounts negotiated by pharmacy benefit managers go to employers and consumers. HB264 also requires pharmacy benefit managers to report more details of their activities to government regulators to ensure that they are following the law.
“Today the balance has shifted away from large corporations and their profits back to independent pharmacies and the consumers,” Sen. Adam Bass, R-Bossier City, said in an interview following the insurance committee hearing.
Gov. Jeff Landry has sided with the independent pharmacies, saying when he opened the legislative session nearly two months ago that he favors “reining in the PBMs who are driving the cost of prescriptions.” Landry pitched his views to Republican senators Monday night in the Senate basement, according to senators.
Lobbyists for pharmacy benefit managers had lobbied against HB264 but accepted the changes as inevitable, legislative sources said, to try to head off Louisiana from following Arkansas and adopting more far-reaching legislation that would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from also owning and operating pharmacies.
Landry also supports that change, according to his staff.
CVS, the biggest drug store company that owns a pharmacy benefit manager, sued Arkansas a week ago to block the new law there from taking effect. CVS has 23 pharmacies in Arkansas but more than 100 in Louisiana.
The CEO of Caremark, CVS’ pharmacy benefit manager, tried to sway legislators in Louisiana with phone calls, legislators said. The CEO of Optum Rx, another pharmacy benefit manager, came to Baton Rouge to personally lobby lawmakers.
A state website shows that CVS has seven lobbyists working the halls of the State Capitol. They are working in alliance with lobbyists for the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.
“PBMs secure savings on prescription drugs for Louisiana employers and patients and provide employers with a wide range of choices to offer quality prescription drug coverage,” said Greg Lopes, a spokesperson for the association. “Drug companies set drug prices, and the prices are the problem.”
CVS declined to comment, saying the company is still digesting the last-minute changes to HB264.
The Louisiana Association of Independent Pharmacies and their allies have their own phalanx of lobbyists.
“PBMs shouldn’t be allowed to say one thing and do another behind the scenes,” said Randal Johnson, president of the Louisiana Independent Pharmacies Association. “HB264 attempts to shine a light on rebate flows, bans hidden fees and ensures that what’s paid and what’s reimbursed can actually be traced and reviewed. That’s good policy, and more importantly, it’s pro-patient.”
The heavy lobbying by both sides caught the attention of legislators.
“Every lobbyist here is hired,” said Rep. Dustin Miller, D-Opelousas. “You have CEOs from these companies flying in. There are meetings happening in every room of this building.”
Pharmacy benefit managers have become in vogue only in the past dozen years but have quickly faced questions for their activities.
The New York Times reported in a three-part series last year that pharmacy benefit managers operate in an opaque fashion and “are driving up drug costs for millions of people, employers and the government.”
The Trump administration and Congress are moving to adopt less favorable rules for pharmacy benefit managers.
Wednesday’s action is not the final word in the long-running battle in Louisiana between the independent pharmacies and their allies on one side and the pharmacy benefit managers on the other.
The full Senate still needs to approve House Bill 264, and the House would need to agree to the changes made by the Senate before adjournment on June 12.
In the meantime, a separate House measure, House Bill 358 by Miller, could be amended to institute the change that CVS strongly opposes – a prohibition on pharmacy benefit managers from owning or operating pharmacies. House and Senate negotiators are scheduled to meet in the next several days to decide on the final shape of HB358.
“I support any legislation that will stop the anti-competitive practices that I think PBMs do,” Miller said in an interview.
Rep. Mike Echols, R-Monroe, and the sponsor of HB264, also takes a skeptical view of the pharmacy benefit managers.
“We’re putting money into the hands of consumers, which should lower costs,” he told the Senate Insurance Committee.
Driving HB264 forward has been Bass, a 44-year-old Allstate agent who is the vice chair of the insurance committee. Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-Harahan, the committee chair, deputized Bass to try to fashion a bill that could win legislative approval.
Bass said he concluded that pharmacy benefit managers were using their power to block some drugs from coming to market and that employers and consumers are not receiving enough of the discounts negotiated by pharmacy benefit managers with drug manufacturers.
Bass said he met with lobbyists from all sides and worked until midnight with legislative staff late on Monday and Tuesday night to confect the final language for changes in HB264.
The amendments were not shared with lobbyists and some lawmakers until just before Wednesday’s meeting. Echols was quickly familiarizing himself with the changes to his bill just before he presented it Wednesday.
Once the hearing began, Bass explained the changes. A half hour later, the committee approved the amended bill without objection.
The lobbyists on both sides of the issue got up to depart, leaving behind a nearly empty room as the Senate committee moved onto less controversial measures.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – South Louisiana’s coast has long served as a natural buffer between communities and rising water.
But since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost nearly 2,000 square miles of coastal land.
Dr. Torbjorn Tornqvist, a professor at Tulane University, said Louisiana is one of the most vulnerable coastal areas in the world because of climate change, sea level rise and subsidence.
“Louisiana is arguably one of the most vulnerable… perhaps the most vulnerable coastal zones in the world when it comes to climate change and sea level rise… and there are several reasons for that but one important reason is that we have high subsidence rates, and that means sea level rise here is a lot faster than the average around the world,” Tornqvist said.
Tornqvist is the lead author of a recently published study examining the long-term impacts of sea level rise across south Louisiana.
He said the issue is no longer limited to communities closest to the Gulf Coast.
“People are leaving the coast of Louisiana, but it’s going to accelerate over the course of the century. And those people are going to have to go somewhere, and it’s likely that a significant number are going to look at a place like Baton Rouge to move to,” Tornqvist said.
Since Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana has invested billions of dollars in large-scale restoration projects designed to reduce flood risk and strengthen the coast.
Some researchers believe those projects are important but not permanent fixes.
“We have…right now we have a pretty high-quality flood protection system that’s obviously way better than it was during Katrina and we should certainly keep investing in upkeep, but we also have to recognize that’s only going to take us so far,” Tornqvist said.
State officials say those investments remain critical as Louisiana adapts to future flood risks.
Micheal Hare, executive director of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, said the state’s coastal plan is designed to balance restoration work with protection projects, including levees.
“Our 2023 master plan certainly incorporates the best science available to us to then come up with a balanced approach between how do we effectively spend money on restoration as well as money on protection projects like levees,” Hare said.
Hare said those projects will continue to evolve as future risks change. CPRA and the Army Corps of Engineers are re-evaluating portions of the West Bank and Vicinity levee system in New Orleans to meet projected future flood risks within the next half-decade.
“Morganza to the Gulf is a great example, location communities came together, they started funding it…so that protection is critical…It will constantly be maintained and constantly elevated to meet the new levels of threats and risks that are out there,” Hare said.
Coastal officials and researchers agree that what happens along Louisiana’s coast will continue to affect communities far beyond the shoreline for generations.
“And so maybe you don’t live behind the levee, but I promise you want those coastal communities to stay there and to keep working, and to stay productive and engaged…so that we don’t have to have these flood fights further north or lose parts of our economy,” Hare said.
Tornqvist said the decisions made now could shape the future of Louisiana communities.
“What’s really important to recognize is that the next few decades are basically going to decide the long-term future of cities like Baton Rouge,” Tornqvist said.
Louisiana has always lived with water. As the coast changes and sea levels rise, the challenge is how communities across south Louisiana continue adapting for generations to come.
From the Gulf Coast to Baton Rouge, the future of Louisiana’s coastline is a conversation that impacts the entire state.
Click here to report a typo. Please include the headline.
Click here to subscribe to our WAFB 9 News daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.
Watch the latest WAFB news and weather now.
Louisiana ranks among the top 10 most affordable states to retire, according to a new study from Retirement Living, a national journal of retirement research.
Researchers analyzed each state’s housing costs, living expenses and tax friendliness to compile the ranking. Louisiana, they say, is the eighth most affordable state for retirees.
In Louisiana, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $932, the median home sale price is $255,000, monthly grocery spend per capita is $272, the average price per gallon of regular gas is $4, the average Medicare Advantage monthly premium is $13.35 and the average effective property tax rate is 0.55%.
West Virginia is the most affordable state to retire, followed by Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Indiana and Kansas. Researchers describe the South as “the sweet spot for an affordable retirement.”
The most expensive state to retire, meanwhile, is California, followed by Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Utah, New York and Minnesota.
Read Retirement Living’s full report here.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – With hurricane season approaching, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is bringing the community together to prepare before a storm forms.
“We can’t stop disasters from happening. We can’t stop hurricanes from happening. But what we can do is equip our communities with the resources that they need to prepare for these storms ahead of time,” said Jayda Morris, CPRA outreach manager.
The agency hosted an event featuring interactive storm simulations and a full model of the Mississippi River.
“If you do it now, like on a sunny day like today, you’re ready to go for the rest of the season,” Jay Grymes said.
El Niño may reduce storms, but Louisiana still at risk
State Climatologist Jay Grymes said an El Niño pattern may reduce the number of storms in the Atlantic but warned against a false sense of security.
“In those 25 years, Louisiana, some part of the state has been impacted by 29 storms. That’s one a year, regardless of El Niño. So that should tell you something,” Grymes said.
He said the bigger concern is storms that can form in the Gulf with little warning.
“If we’re going to get a storm, it very possibly could be one that bubbles up in the Gulf and doesn’t give us five or seven days to track it coming our way. It gives us 40 hours to get ready for a landfall. So it’s imperative that you go ahead and do it now,” Grymes said.
Preparation goes beyond stocking water
Preparing now includes walking through yards, checking trees, and knowing whether everyone in the family can survive two weeks without power.
PhD students with the LSU College of the Coast and Environment gave the community a virtual reality experience that puts users inside a storm.
“If they wear the goggles or play with the Apple Vision Pro, they can understand how high will the flood be, and they can know how dangerous is the hurricane scenario,” said Yixuan Wang.
The VR simulation uses real historical data to show users what compound flooding looks like in New Orleans and surrounding areas. The goal is to make the science real for people who can’t picture what a flood map means.
“It’s just to let you understand the environment. We will add the audios, the different sound of the wind and the storm. And you can see how tense of the rainfall around you,” Wang said.
Organizers said the event is about making sure that when a storm threatens the area, families already know their plan.
Information from the event is available on CPRA’s website. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
Click here to report a typo. Please include the headline.
Click here to subscribe to our WAFB 9 News daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.
Watch the latest WAFB news and weather now.
-
Louisiana4 minutes agoLouisiana’s disappearing coast could shape Baton Rouge’s future
-
Maine7 minutes ago‘Malicious gossip’: Wife of Senate candidate Graham Platner responds to texting claims
-
Maryland12 minutes agoYour Voice Your Future | Town Hall
-
Michigan19 minutes agoFifth Third Bank to close 75 Michigan branches, including former Comerica locations
-
Massachusetts22 minutes agoWinners’ circle: Tracking every 2026 spring high school championship – The Boston Globe
-
Minnesota27 minutes agoMinnesota Medicaid crisis: Thousands of care providers cut off from funding after state revalidation deadline
-
Mississippi34 minutes agoMississippi LB Devontray Brewer committed to Stanford and broke down his decision
-
Missouri37 minutes agoKansas City, Missouri, police investigating Monday evening homicide near 12th, Askew
