Labor Department, Employee Benefits Security Administration
The Department is issuing a final regulation that will require providers of pharmacy benefit management services and affiliated providers of brokerage and consulting services to disclose information about their compensation to fiduciaries of large, self-insured group health plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Pharmacy spending is a major driver of overall healthcare costs for employers and is growing faster than medical and surgical spending. These disclosure requirements apply for purposes of ERISA's statutory prohibited transaction exemption for service arrangements under section 408(b)(2). These disclosures are needed so that fiduciaries can assess the reasonableness of contracts or arrangements with these service providers, including the reasonableness of the service providers' compensation. As directed in section 12 of President Trump's Executive Order 14273, Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First, the Department is issuing this rule to improve employer health plan transparency into the direct and indirect compensation received by pharmacy benefit managers. This final rule will affect sponsors and other fiduciaries of large, self-insured group health plans and certain service providers to such plans.
Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration 29 CFR Part 2550 RIN 1210-AB37 ( printed page 69092) AGENCY: Employee Benefits Security Administration, Department of Labor. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Department is issuing a final regulation that will require providers of pharmacy benefit management services and affiliated providers of brokerage and consulting services to disclose information about their compensation to fiduciaries of large, self-insured group health plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Pharmacy spending is a major driver of overall healthcare costs for employers and is growing faster than medical and surgical spending. These disclosure requirements apply for purposes of ERISA's statutory prohibited transaction exemption for service arrangements under section 408(b)(2). These disclosures are needed so that fiduciaries can assess the reasonableness of contracts or arrangements with these service providers, including the reasonableness of the service providers' compensation. As directed in section 12 of President Trump's Executive Order 14273 , Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First , the Department is issuing this rule to improve employer health plan transparency into the direct and indirect compensation received by pharmacy benefit managers. This final rule will affect sponsors and other fiduciaries of large, self-insured group health plans and certain service providers to such plans. DAT…
Citation: 91 FR 69092
