State Rep. Philip Rigsby said he remains hopeful that lawmakers will address the issue of helping smaller, struggling pharmacies in the future.

Rep. Rigsby (R-Huntsville) introduced a pharmacy rebate bill last session, but it failed to pass due to strong opposition from groups such as the Alabama Healthcare Consumers League.

House Bill 238 would require pharmacy benefit managers to reimburse in-network pharmacies for the cost of acquiring drugs and would add to dispensing fees set by the federal government and used in programs such as Medicaid.

The state lawmaker further discussed the issue on WVNN's “Yaffee Program” on Friday.

“I think, as did most of the legislators, I got more inquiries about the PBM bill than I did about gambling and ethics combined,” Rigsby said, “so I guess I ended up introducing probably the most controversial bill this session, and a lot of it was based on a false narrative.”

Rigsby said he will work hard to introduce better legislation to address the issue in the next session.

“So we're going to be revisiting our plan,” he said. “We're going to be talking to stakeholders and trying to understand how we can help our health care providers. We've had several areas of health care reach out to us and say, 'Pharmacy isn't the only one that's being underpaid for their services. How do we address that?' So I think we need to have that conversation about health care to ensure that we have access to not only quality health care, but affordable health care, so that our health care providers can stay in business and take care of Alabama patients.”

Rigsby also thinks lawmakers need to do a better job of educating the public about what actually goes into the cost of prescription drugs.

“Well, I think that’s part of the education,” he said. “I think most people when they go to a pharmacy, especially a drug store, they walk up to the counter and they’re told, ‘Pay this price.’ A lot of people don’t understand where that price comes from.

“When you go to a prescription pharmacy and you give the prescription to the pharmacy, if you're using insurance, the pharmacy sends that transaction to the insurance company, or PBM (pharmacy benefit management company), and they send the price back. So it's really the insurance company that sets the price the patient pays, and a lot of people don't understand that they think the pharmacy sets the price they pay. That's true if you pay cash, of course, but if you're using insurance, the insurance company sets the price. So there's a bit of an education issue there.”

Rigsby reiterated that he wants to help make health care more accessible and affordable in the Yellow Hammer State.

“My goal is to talk to PBMs, insurers, manufacturers, wholesalers and the Department of Insurance to understand how prescription drug pricing and prescription drug regulation specifically works in Alabama,” he said. “I understand the pharmacy side of things because I used to run a pharmacy, but ultimately in Alabama we need to see how we can work together to ensure that patients have access to the medications they need and that there are pharmacies in their community that can take care of their needs. All pharmacists want to take care of their patients.”

Yaffe is a contributing writer for Yellow Hammer News and hosts “The Yaffe Program” weekdays from 9-11 a.m. WhistlerYou can follow us on Twitter @Yaffe