Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / LaborPress Radio's Alex Garrett Talks With Tonia Sorrell-Neal of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association 9-5-24

Transcript

LaborPress Radio's Alex Garrett Talks With Tonia Sorrell-Neal of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association 9-5-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, back here at the Labor Press High Speed
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Rail Conference Salem Media Group. I'm Alex Garrett with Tanya
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Sorell Neil. You're the senior director for State Affairs for
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  Speaker 1: the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association also known as PCMI.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me, Yeah, thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Now, pharmaceuticals high speed Rail. What's the connection here?
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  Speaker 2: Unions, organized labor. They're a powerful entity and we need
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  Speaker 2: to be able to get some education and information in
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  Speaker 2: their hands. And this is a great opportunity to do so.
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  Speaker 1: When I think of state affairs, so you deal with Washington,
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  Speaker 1: you deal with New York State, I imagine as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'm based in Seattle, so I deal with Washington, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Montana, Hawaii,
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  Speaker 2: Alaskan and Oregon and so. But I also work with
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  Speaker 2: our organized labor partners on PBM issues that impact them
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  Speaker 2: at the state level as well as educating them for
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  Speaker 2: the national level.
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  Speaker 1: I've been here a lot today about the pharmaceuticals. How
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  Speaker 1: prices are through the roof for union members. Is that
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  Speaker 1: across the board for not EU members as well, But
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  Speaker 1: when it hits the union members, that's a call to action.
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  Speaker 2: For you guys, right, it is absolutely And so what
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  Speaker 2: a PBM does, which are our clients with people we
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  Speaker 2: work for, is we work with the health plans in
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  Speaker 2: order to get the lowest prices by negotiating those prescription
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  Speaker 2: drug prices and putting together some services that help keep
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  Speaker 2: prices low.
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  Speaker 1: When you see the administration, say the biderministration or any
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  Speaker 1: administration lower the drug costs, are you guys playing a
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  Speaker 1: role in that.
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  Speaker 2: We're playing a big girl in that. Yao. So we're
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  Speaker 2: going to be at all of those tables and again
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  Speaker 2: trying to make sure the plans have the ability to
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  Speaker 2: work their magic and make decisions in order to keep
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  Speaker 2: the prices low. So the more regulations that are passed
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  Speaker 2: against PBMs, the less choice that the labor unions their
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  Speaker 2: management partners have in their health.
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  Speaker 1: Enters controversial question here. But how do big Farmer get
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  Speaker 1: away with this?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, that is a controversial question. They have
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  Speaker 2: a lot of money and they are using a lot
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  Speaker 2: of different tactics to be able to try to control
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  Speaker 2: the messaging. And so at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 2: farm and the manufacturers they're the ones that set the
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  Speaker 2: prices and the rest of us are working to in
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  Speaker 2: the drug supply chain to keep those costs low.
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  Speaker 1: Now, at the same time, you guys have to work
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  Speaker 1: with the pharmaceuticals as well.
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  Speaker 2: We do, yep, yep, They're a partner. And you know, again,
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  Speaker 2: as with any industry, you want to be able to
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  Speaker 2: work well. And part of the challenges is all the
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  Speaker 2: rhetoric and all of the misinformation that is being spread
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  Speaker 2: by some of the different associations in the pharmaceutical entity.
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  Speaker 2: And so as long as that rhetoric continues to be
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  Speaker 2: at this depth and extreme it is, you're going to
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  Speaker 2: see legislation and bills and laws pass, but not on
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  Speaker 2: the merits of it, more on the rhetoric of the conversation. Now.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously we're talking about the high speed rail as well,
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  Speaker 1: So a lot of your members could really be impacted
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  Speaker 1: in a good way.
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  Speaker 2: With this, in a good way. You know what. The
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  Speaker 2: more they build, the more these unions are strong and
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  Speaker 2: they can treat their members well and get people from
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  Speaker 2: one place to another. That is going to benefit everybody
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  Speaker 2: in this country. And it'll really serve to improve the
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  Speaker 2: mode of transportation and the busy cities.
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  Speaker 1: So listeners out there might be union leaders saying, oh
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  Speaker 1: my god, my guys are not getting good drug prices
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  Speaker 1: either or fair prices. How can they reach out to you?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so most all plans have a PBM hired in
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  Speaker 2: one manner or another, and so what they want to
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  Speaker 2: do is reach out to their plan providers and talk
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  Speaker 2: about what different options they can use within the plan
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  Speaker 2: that's been designed for them. And you know, we have
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  Speaker 2: all kinds of folks available that can help work the
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  Speaker 2: work them on those specific issues.
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  Speaker 1: We're dealing with real life here, okay, And I feel
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  Speaker 1: like as somewhat disability myself. Yes, there are hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: others that become disabled email on the job, but I
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  Speaker 1: just feel like Washington doesn't understand that yet, and you're
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  Speaker 1: bringing that understanding to that market.
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  Speaker 2: We are trying our best, and that is part of it,
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  Speaker 2: is understanding how complex the drug supply chain is and
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  Speaker 2: how personal it is to each person. You know, how
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  Speaker 2: a drug reacts to one person is not going to
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  Speaker 2: be the same. And then of course you have other
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  Speaker 2: challenges that are going on in the industry, within the
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  Speaker 2: healthcare industry as a whole, that have to be addressed,
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  Speaker 2: and so we really need people to focus. We need
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  Speaker 2: our labor partners to be able to share how it
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  Speaker 2: impacts their members, and we need Congress and the state
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  Speaker 2: legislatures to step back and be more thoughtful and realize
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  Speaker 2: the cost of implications of some of these choices.
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  Speaker 1: If someone misses pacma's website, right, are their testimonials from
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  Speaker 1: union members talking about.
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  Speaker 2: So there's not but we are. We just have a
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  Speaker 2: new website and they're just putting up new information and
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  Speaker 2: we've got a couple of things in play that those
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  Speaker 2: will be up soon and we'll be sharing those with
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  Speaker 2: other union partners as well.
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  Speaker 1: You see these drug prices lower. I feel like you
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  Speaker 1: guys be like in Michigan controlled cheering.
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  Speaker 2: It right, Yes, yeah, so you know we we were,
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  Speaker 2: our PBMs were really involved with getting generics brought into
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  Speaker 2: the mainstream and how generics are have improved the cost
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  Speaker 2: of prescription drugs. One of the things that I think
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people don't realize is only about ten
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  Speaker 2: percent of the prescription drugs that are out there are
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  Speaker 2: causing those cost increases. Ninety percent of our generics and
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  Speaker 2: it's those ten percent that are under cylinder or patent
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  Speaker 2: by the manufacturers that that there's not a lot of
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  Speaker 2: cost controls on.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if you were there when Strelli went
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  Speaker 1: to jail and all that, But did that raise awareness
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  Speaker 1: to all of this this going on? Right?
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  Speaker 2: So I wasn't, And because I'm from the West Coast,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not as familiar with that issue, so I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to pass on that.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. So but when you have those high profile cases,
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  Speaker 1: it kind of raise awareness. Oh my god, that people
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  Speaker 1: on the ground are dealing with this every day.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, there's a lot of conversation around PBMs,
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  Speaker 2: and what's not going on is the conversation around how
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  Speaker 2: they impact the individuals and the plan participants on a
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  Speaker 2: daily basis. And when you have you know, requirements that
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  Speaker 2: talk about step therapy or you have to choose you know,
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  Speaker 2: certain drugs, those are a decisions that are made by
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  Speaker 2: the plan to help keep costs low, but also to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that the patient and the consumer gets the
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  Speaker 2: right drug at the right time. Sure, and that's really
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  Speaker 2: important too.
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  Speaker 1: And also copays and all the refills and all that
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  Speaker 1: idea with that on daily basements. Anyway, I'm looking into
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  Speaker 1: the cards. S CiU is here, a fl CIO is here,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm sure you deal with all of these unions
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  Speaker 1: on the whole. So what's it like dealing with the
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  Speaker 1: different leaders.
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  Speaker 2: You know what, it's it's a step going home the
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  Speaker 2: or the labor leadership. They're so thoughtful and they really
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  Speaker 2: understand what it is that their members want and what
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  Speaker 2: it is that they need. And so I am thrilled
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  Speaker 2: to be able to have the opportunity to be able
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  Speaker 2: to work in this space.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm sure PCM always looking to add on more unions.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Yes, absolutely, And that's kind of why we're here today,
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  Speaker 2: to be able to meet some folks and be able
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  Speaker 2: to get some information and some education moving forward.
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  Speaker 1: Because when you see the word local, you really mean local.
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  Speaker 1: You could be from Washington, but here we go side
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  Speaker 1: someone from Long Island City or even here in New
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  Speaker 1: High Park, right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, So we see state legislation across all the states,
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  Speaker 2: and so there's consistency in those patterns, and so being
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  Speaker 2: able to talk with the locals and be able to
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  Speaker 2: share those messages and help people understand what it is
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  Speaker 2: their PREBM does for them is a big part of
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  Speaker 2: what we do.
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  Speaker 1: One last thing New York say typically blue, is it
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  Speaker 1: in favor of unions in this regard or is there
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  Speaker 1: still work to go with them?
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  Speaker 2: You know what, there's a lot of work in the
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  Speaker 2: whole education and information of PBMs and what they do.
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  Speaker 2: The good news is because New York is a leader
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  Speaker 2: not only in the Union world but also in the
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  Speaker 2: Democratic States, sure that when they get involved, people listen,
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  Speaker 2: and they have gotten involved strongly in New York and
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  Speaker 2: address some of the legislation that has been attempting to
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  Speaker 2: pass and been able to really help control some of that.
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  Speaker 1: Tanya Sirel Neil, thanks for joining me today.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, it's nice meeting you.