25 March 2025
ST. PAUL — Two bills heard recently by the Minnesota Health and Finance House Committee aim to make prescription drugs cheaper for patients.
HF1075, which was brought before the committee on Wednesday, March 19, would require pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to use drug rebates to reduce out-of-pocket costs.
“The way the rebate system has evolved, the PBMs and the plans have this perverse incentive to choose high-price, high-rebate plans for their formularies instead of low-price, low-rebate drugs which would give the patients themselves a lower price,” Rep. Steve Elkins, primary author of HF1075, said in the Health and Finance Committee meeting on March 19.
Co-authors on the bill are Rep. Matt Norris, DFL-Blaine; Rep. Kristin Bahner, DFL-Maple Grove; and Rep. Liz Reyer, DFL-Eagan.
Elkins said the bill helps direct savings to individuals, versus benefitting PBMs or insurance carriers.
“Very little of those rebates find their way back to patients,” Elkins said in an interview. “Sometimes the patient ends up paying more for the drug than the health plan … I just don’t think that’s fair.”
Michelle Crimmins, the registered lobbyist for the PBM Prime Therapeutics, testified in opposition to the bill, saying that lowering point-of-sale costs may drive up drug prices for the entire market because cost reductions will increase premium prices.
“It has the unintended consequence of raising the cost of health care,” Crimmins said. “It only lowers, potentially, costs for the consumer taking the drug and not the entire insured population.”
HF1076, a related bill also authored by Elkins, would require health carriers and PBMs to include and prioritize low-cost options for prescriptions in their coverage plans.
This legislation would encourage inclusion in formularies of generic equivalents to more expensive name-brand medications.
Elkins used the insulin market as an example, saying the insulin brand Humalog is sold at over $200 per vial. Elkins said an unbranded alternative medication costs $25 per vial but the generic insulin may not be available through patients’ health plans.
HF1076 would require PBMs to include and “give preference” to the drug with the lowest out-of-pocket cost in their health plans so patients can have the cheaper prescriptions covered.
“The specific thrust of what I’m doing with those two bills is to make sure that the pharmacy benefit managers and the health plans include the lowest price drugs in their formularies, make them available to patients who need them and pass along all of the rebates that they receive on those drugs,” Elkins said.
The bills were laid over for further discussion. If passed, they would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
]]>