CVS may close stores in Arkansas following law banning PBMs from owning pharmacies
Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on April 16 signed HB 1150 into law. The legislation prohibits state permits to pharmacies owned by pharmacy benefit managers effective Jan. 1, 2026.
Following news of the legislation's passage, CVS Health announced it may be forced to close 23 stores in Arkansas. CVS Health provided Drug Store News with the following statement:
- "CVS Health welcomes a good-faith discussion with policymakers in Arkansas and across the country on ways to make medicine more affordable and accessible. Unfortunately, HB1150 is bad policy that accomplishes just the opposite: it will take away access to pharmacy care in local communities, hike prescription drug spending across the state by millions of dollars each year, and cost hundreds of Arkansans their jobs.
- Specifically, the Arkansas legislature and governor are choosing to close 23 community pharmacies (including some of the very few that are open 24 hours), fire more than 500 local healthcare workers, erode access to specialized pharmacy care for the 10,000 Arkansas patients with serious conditions who rely on additional support, and increase the cost of Arkansas health benefits by millions of dollars each year.
- Facts should matter more than rhetoric, and a simple economic analysis could have avoided all this chaos: Factoring in both closures AND openings, there are 14 more independent pharmacies operating in Arkansas today than there were in 2019, and CVS Caremark reimburses independent pharmacies in Arkansas 61% higher than it does CVS pharmacies.
- By signing HB1150, Governor Sanders is choosing to close 23 community pharmacies across Arkansas and abandon the 340,000 Arkansans who currently fill their prescriptions at these locations. We’ll do everything we can to support our colleagues and patients, but ultimately we will obey the law."
Following signing of the bill into law, The National Community Pharmacists Association expressed that it supported the Arkansas Pharmacists Association’s leadership on HB 1150 as it moved through the legislative process.
NCPA said, “APA is the voice of Arkansas pharmacists and has worked hard to advance HB 1150 and other PBM reform efforts. NCPA, which represents the country’s independent community pharmacies, has also persistently advocated that state and federal policymakers rein in the conflicts of interest and anticompetitive business practices that arise with PBMs vertically integrated upstream with health insurers and downstream with pharmacies. These practices include contract terms that restrict competitors’ access to patients, massive clawbacks, steering patients away from competing community pharmacies, below-cost reimbursements, and punitive audit practices. Prohibiting PBM ownership of pharmacies via HB 1150 would put an end to these tactics and promote Arkansans’ access to quality pharmacy care."
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“Today is a new day in Arkansas for our patients as the fox will no longer guard the henhouse,” said John Vinson, APA’s CEO. “This bipartisan legislation passed overwhelmingly to protect public health and safety for Arkansans. HB 1150 will stop the abusive self-dealing at PBM affiliated pharmacies that raises prescription drug prices and limits patient access. The pharmacists of Arkansas are very grateful for a courageous legislature and Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. We also thank Attorney General Tim Griffin for his support.”
“Time and time again, PBMs have proven themselves to be resistant to transparency and reform,” said Anne Cassity, NCPA’s senior vice president of government affairs. “HB 1150 is a structural change that gets to the heart of the problem—the conflicts of interest inherent in vertical integration that PBMs have been manipulating to the detriment of patients, taxpayers, and pharmacies. We applaud HB 1150 and are eager to see its provisions implemented in Arkansas and, ideally, throughout the country.”
NCPA pointed out that since the introduction of HB 1150, similar ownership provisions were introduced or amended into bills in Indiana, New York, Texas and Vermont. Additionally, on April 14, a bipartisan coalition of 39 state and territory attorneys general sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to pass legislation prohibiting PBMs from owning or operating pharmacies.
[Read more: NACDS to 118th Congress: Now, let’s get PBM reform done]
A bill to do so was introduced late last year by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reps. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.)—who wrote a letter in support of Arkansas HB 1150—and Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), the organization noted.