Minnesota AG Leads Coalition Seeking More Regulations of PBMs

June 13, 2024

On June 10, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that he is leading a bipartisan coalition of 32 attorneys general from across the country asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on states’ authority to regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).  

In an amicus brief to the Court, Ellison and the coalition ask the Court to grant Oklahoma’s request that the Court review a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which held that federal laws preempt Oklahoma laws that regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). 

The challenge to Oklahoma’s laws is the latest in a string of lawsuits by the PBM industry’s national lobbying association, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA). 

Ellison and the coalition seek to protect consumers by assuring that all states can regulate PBMs. As Ellison and the coalition write in their amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, “states have a compelling interest in preserving their traditional authority to protect their residents’ access to healthcare and to regulate business practices in their states. To advance these interests, all states regulate [PBMs] to some degree.” PCMA and the 10th Circuit’s broad approach to federal preemption, however, would “severely and unduly impede states’ abilities to protect their residents and regulate businesses.” 

“No one should have to choose between affording their lives and affording to live, but the high cost of pharmaceutical drugs forces too many people to do just that — and the abusive practices of PBMs are one of the main reasons people are having to make that terrible choice,” Ellison said.  

It is the third time Ellison has led bipartisan, multistate coalitions of attorneys general in defense of states’ ability to regulate PBMs: he led a coalition of 34 attorneys general in October 2022 in an amicus brief to the 10th Circuit in this same case in defense of Oklahoma’s laws; and he led a similar bipartisan coalition in July 2021 in an amicus brief to the Eighth Circuit to defend North Dakota’s laws regulating PBMs. 

In 2019, the Minnesota Legislature passed the Minnesota Pharmacy Benefit Manager Licensure and Regulation Act. Since the law’s passage, the Minnesota Department of Commerce has reached settlements or issued cease and desist orders in 12 cases enforcing the state’s PBM laws.  

The coalition includes attorneys general from Minnesota, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.