The 2025 legislative session is over, we adjourned “Sine Die” in the early morning hours of Thursday, May 15 after a 22-hour marathon session. This has been another historic session, there is so much to write about, but so little space in these newsletters. I will touch on a few key pieces of legislation that passed in the last few days and write about more over the coming weeks during the interim.

One of the most important issues we took on was to further regulate the companies known as “Pharmacy Benefit Managers” or PBM’s. These companies are middle men in the insurance industry that supposedly exist to help regulate drug prices. However, the result has been devastating to our local pharmacies as these PBM’s have been soaking up huge profits without adding any value to the supply chain. More than 200 pharmacies have closed in Iowa in the last decade, including more than 30 last year. Rural Iowa has been hit the hardest, making it harder for these Iowans to get the medications they need. Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare providers and are a critical component of our healthcare infrastructure in both rural and urban communities. For far too long, the abusive, anti-competitive practices of PBM’s has created an epidemic of pharmacy closures and rising prescription drug prices nationwide.

PBM driven overworked and understaffed pharmacies result in burnt out staff, risks to public safety and a lower level of care than Iowans deserve. Community pharmacists want to care for the communities and it’s time that they get an even playing field to do just that. Senate File 383 is the PBM reform bill that includes numerous changes that will help raise the bottom line of our local pharmacies and also protect the consumer. One controversial provision of the bill requires PBMs to reimburse retail pharmacies (not large national chains and those with only mail order) based on acquisition cost plus a dispensing fee of $10.68. The PBM’s are attempting to fight this last change by claiming it will cost employers and consumers millions of dollars for this dispensing fee. However, experience with this same change in other states indicates that the fee will be absorbed with other changes to the bill with minimal impact to employers and consumers. This bill provides transparency in a broken system, empowers patients to choose their healthcare provider, requires that the dollars in the system benefit patients and employers, and ensures that pharmacies can keep their doors open by reimbursing what it costs to dispense prescriptions to Iowans. This bill will move the needle to protect vital healthcare infrastructure in our state. This keeps money in Iowa, rather than driving consumers to large out of state mail order pharmacies.

Another significant issue was the inclusion of $1 million for additional cancer research at the University of Iowa. This appropriation was called for by the governor to help us understand how and why cancer is such a significant issue here in Iowa. It is imperative that we understand the science of it and rise above the politically motive clatter that has been driving the discussion in recent years. There are many bad actors in our political arena such as Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement that want to blame our farmers for Iowa’s cancer rates. There is no data that supports their claims, this appropriation will help ensure that the science is brought forward so that the truth overcomes the political agendas.