PhRMA is pushing to get pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform over the line in Congress’ lame-duck session, using its first TV spot since the U.S. election to rail against a familiar, rebate-snaffling adversary.
The industry group has repeatedly gone after PBMs in recent years, framing the organizations as middlemen in the healthcare system that take a cut—without providing value—and reduce patient choice. Across the ads, PBMs have been personified by a man in a blue suit who typically shows up and smugly explains how he is making things worse for patients to line his own pockets.
The new ad, which ran in the Commanders-Steelers NFL game Sunday, follows PhRMA’s PBM playbook. The TV spot opens with a healthcare professional (HCP) asking a patient how her treatment is going. The treatment is good, the patient says, but she is worried about what she will have to pay.
In response, the HCP says, “You know, PBMs often get rebates on medicine.” That is the cue for the man in the blue suit to enter with an enthusiastic “you bet I do.” The man picks up a card that says “medicine rebate” as the HCP tells the patient “they should pass the savings to you.” The patient says that is great and asks when she will see the savings, teeing the PBM avatar up to twist the knife.
“Oh, you can see them,” the man says, “you just can't get them.” As the man delivers the line, he holds out the medicine rebate card—and then snaps it away as the patient reaches to take it. The man walks away, picks another rebate card off the table and then hurriedly sweeps up all the other cards.
The TV spot ends with a frame dominated by the text “Congress should make sure savings go directly to patients, not middlemen.” A table with the medicine rebate cards is next to the text. The man in the blue suit skips backward into the frame, grabs a card, gives a self-satisfied smirk to the camera and trots off.
PhRMA wants lawmakers to pass PBM reforms in the lame-duck session that runs until the new Congress is sworn in early next year. Lawmakers have taken an interest in PBM in recent years, holding hearings and running investigations to understand the organizations, but are yet to deliver all the changes that PhRMA wants to see.