Montana lawmakers consider proposals meant to cut drug costs

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana lawmakers and the state insurance commissioner are targeting a generally hidden part of the health care system, with new regulations aimed at bringing down prescription drug costs. Companies in the drug supply chain, and the state's biggest health insurance company, are fighting back.

In recent years, both Gov. Steve Bullock's administration and State Insurance Commissioner Matt Rosendale have tried to change how companies called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, operate in the state.

PBMs negotiate deals between drug manufacturers and insurance companies and government health plans that supply them to patients. Those deals are often complicated and opaque.

Great Falls Republican Sen.