Pharmacy benefit manager executives from Cigna, CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group are scheduled to testify before Congress on July 23, giving lawmakers a chance to question the companies after a critical report from the Federal Trade Commission earlier this month.
The hearing is being held by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which is one of several groups in Congress that has been focused on the PBM industry and how it works with drugmakers and pharmacies.
According to the committee’s announcement, the top executives at all three of the biggest PBMs will testify, including Adam Kautzner, head of Cigna’ Express Scripts; David Joyner, head of CVS Caremark; and Patrick Conway, leader of UnitedHealth’s OptumRx. Together, the three companies control 79% of the market, according to an FTC report released on July 9.
The antitrust regulator has been looking into the industry since 2022, and last week’s report described the big PBMs and their parent companies as “conglomerates that can exercise vast control over huge swaths of the healthcare sector.” It fell short of calling for regulatory action or a breakup, though the FTC is planning a lawsuit against the companies, according to reports.
The hearing will be the committee’s third on PBMs. Earlier hearings in the series brought in some of the major critics of the big PBMs, including representatives from smaller competitors, drugmakers, pharmacies and academics.
Lawmakers have advanced bills targeting the PBMs, including legislation to ban a practice known as spread pricing, and another proposal to force the industry to use flat fees in Medicare. But time is rapidly running out in Congress as the campaign season heats up.
CVS confirmed that it had agreed to testify. Representatives for Express Scripts and OptumRx didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.