You may not know it, but big health insurers and companies called pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) control what medicines patients can get and set the price they pay at the pharmacy.

These corporations are often owned by the same giant health care conglomerates that are consolidating their control over the health care system and are using their power to make massive profits while driving up costs for patients.

Here are a few examples of how this opaque industry harms patients:

• Pocket savings that can lower the cost of medicines by 50% or more, instead of sharing them with patients.
• Force some patients to pay more for medicines than PBMs and insurers do.
• Get paid rebates and fees tied to the price of a medicine, which experts have noted may incentivize them to prefer more expensive medicines.
• Mark up the cost of generic drugs, sometimes by thousands of dollars, at the pharmacies they own.
• Deny coverage of lower-cost medicines that can save patients money.
• Extract billions of dollars in opaque, hidden fees.

The PBM industry is facing investigations by Congress, federal and state regulators, state attorneys general, media outlets and more for its role in raising health care costs and anticompetitive business practices.

No patient should pay more for their medicines than their insurer and PBM. It’s time for Congress to hold PBMs accountable and make sure savings go to patients, not middlemen.

Contact your U.S. Representative/Senator today and urge them to take on the middlemen by passing reforms that require middlemen to share medicine savings directly with patients and stop them from profiting off the price of medicines.