Minnesota’s Ill-conceived Prescription Drug Affordability Board

Regarding "CVS gets $500K fine over Rx policy" (May 2): Minnesota is considering instituting an ill-conceived Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) over its state health care system, and the recent news of a state lawsuit against CVS brings more cause for concern. Not only are the allegations of CVS' pharmacy benefit managers illegally steering patients to CVS-owned pharmacies disturbing, but it also poses a major conflict of interest.

CVS leadership could very well serve on the Minnesota PDAB, a body tasked with overseeing the behavior of insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. However, insurers rely on pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate their plan benefits, giving them power in the relationship. Additionally, the board would have power to set drug prices, which will determine how and where patients have access to their prescription drugs. If what the lawsuit alleges is true, the Minnesota government would with one hand be suing CVS for limiting drug access to their own pharmacies and with the other give CVS and others in their industry the keys to the castle on how accessible prescriptions will be.

This LTE originally ran in the StarTribune. Read the full LTE here.