James Comer stops in Allen County for ‘Coffee with Your Congressman’

SCOTTSVILLE, Ky. – Congressman James Comer visited Scottsville Tuesday to talk with his constituents.

One of the issues locals are concerned about is pharmacy benefits managers. These are third party companies that manage prescription benefits, but they are often owned by the same corporations that include insurance companies as well as pharmacy chains.

Comer sees a real problem when they steer business to themselves.

“They’ve been price gouging consumers, they’ve been price gouging Medicare and they’ve been putting independent pharmacies out of business,” Comer said.

Larry Stovall, an owner of a local independent pharmacy, said, “Caremark and Express Scripts, which controls 80% that market, do not adequately reimburse pharmacies for their service, and we cannot even pay our bills.”

Dave Gholson, a retired veteran, told News 40 that the pharmacy benefits manager for Tricare, the insurance that serves veterans, won’t let him fill his prescriptions at his local independent drug store.

Comer says it will take legislation to fix this but is not hopeful because these corporations donate a lot to campaigns.