Georgia CommonsHouse · Passed · 2025-2026 Regular Session
HR 948: House Study Committee on Pharmacy Benefits Managers and Consumer Access to Prescription Medications; create
Last action March 9, 2026 · House Passed/Adopted By Substitute
A Georgia House resolution creates a study committee to examine pharmacy benefits managers and their effect on Georgians' access to prescription drugs, with a report due by December 2026.
The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the resolution and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Comm Sub version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.
In plain language
This resolution sets up the House Study Committee on Pharmacy Benefits Managers and Consumer Access to Prescription Medications. Pharmacy benefits managers, or PBMs, are companies that administer prescription drug insurance benefits, negotiate with drug makers and pharmacies, and decide which drugs are covered and which pharmacies patients can use. The resolution cites concerns that PBMs steer patients toward pharmacies they own, mark up drug prices far above national averages for some medications, and may be contributing to counties in Georgia having no local pharmacy at all. The committee will include House leaders and appointed members or experts, and it is directed to study these issues and recommend legislation if it chooses. Members get standard state travel and meeting allowances, and the committee must file any report before it is abolished on December 1, 2026.
What the bill does
- Creates the House Study Committee on Pharmacy Benefits Managers and Consumer Access to Prescription Medications to examine PBM practices in Georgia.
- Sets committee membership as the chairs of the House Appropriations and Health Committees plus three more members or experts appointed by the Speaker.
- Directs the committee to study PBM-related problems and recommend legislation or other action it deems necessary.
- Authorizes standard legislative allowances and expense reimbursement for members under existing Georgia code sections, capped at five days unless extended.
- Requires any approved findings or legislative recommendations to be filed as a report with the Clerk of the House before the committee ends.
- Abolishes the committee automatically on December 1, 2026.
Who it affects
Pharmacy benefits managers operating in Georgia, independent and affiliate pharmacies, patients who rely on prescription drug coverage, insurers and employers who contract with PBMs, and members of the Georgia House of Representatives who will serve on or oversee the new study committee.
Why it matters
The committee itself changes no law, but its findings could shape future legislation on drug pricing, pharmacy access, and PBM regulation in Georgia, an issue tied to rising drug costs and counties losing local pharmacies.
Key provisions
- Paragraph (1) formally creates the study committee.
- Paragraph (2) sets membership: two committee chairs plus three Speaker-appointed members or experts, with a Speaker-designated chairperson.
- Paragraph (3) charges the committee with studying PBM issues and recommending legislation.
- Paragraph (5) details allowances, capping standard reimbursement at five days unless extended, funded through House appropriations or members' own agencies.
- Paragraph (6) requires any adopted report or recommendations to be filed with the Clerk of the House before abolishment, or minutes filed if no report is approved.
- Paragraph (7) sets the committee's abolishment date as December 1, 2026.
From the bill
“pharmacy benefits managers continue to steer patients to pharmacy benefits manager affiliate pharmacies within this state”
“markups of thousands of percent above the national average drug acquisition costs for medications used to treat multiple sclerosis, cancer, and kidney disease”
Discussed in meetings (5)
The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.
House Health Committee, February 18, 2026
From 1:25:14 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel
Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HR 948 would create a five-member House study committee on pharmacy benefit managers and access to prescription medicines. The sponsor linked pharmacy closures to limited transparency and business arrangements in which insurers, benefit managers and mail-order pharmacies share ownership. Proposed topics included steering patients to affiliated pharmacies, drug pricing, reimbursement practices and effects on patients, pharmacies, employers and taxpayers. The sponsor said the committee would include the House Appropriations and Health chairs and three members appointed by the speaker, generally meeting for up to five days. A member asked to add lupus-related issues. The chair declined to broaden the study, and the sponsor suggested a separate study committee. The committee adopted an amendment changing the end date from 2025 to 2026 and approved the resolution as amended. Opposition was heard, but no vote count was announced.
House Rules Committee, March 9, 2026
From 0:27:03 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel
Summary by Georgia Commons: The committee placed HR 948 on that day's floor calendar under modified structured rules after a motion and second, with no voiced opposition. There was no discussion of the resolution's substance.
House floor session, March 9, 2026 (legislative day 29)
From 1:34:50 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 2361
Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor presented HR 948 to create a House study committee on pharmacy benefit managers and consumer access to prescription medicines. The sponsor said repeated efforts to address pharmacy benefit manager practices showed a need for closer study. Proposed topics included employer billing and payments under self-insured plans, effects on taxpayer-funded health insurance and rates, mandatory mail-order pharmacy arrangements, and the federal 340B pharmacy program. The sponsor also questioned how grocery-store pharmacies could make no profit while, according to the sponsor, the three largest pharmacy benefit managers earned $17.7 billion in profit. No questions or opposing speeches were recorded. The House adopted the committee substitute without objection, with no explanation of its changes, and adopted the resolution 157 to 0.
Status timeline
- House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
- House Third Readers (House)
- House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
- House Second Readers (House)
- House First Readers (House)
- House Hopper (House)
Sponsors
- Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)
- Trey Kelley (R, HD-16)
- Lee Hawkins (R, HD-27)
- Debbie Buckner (D, HD-137)
- Mark Newton (R, HD-127)
Votes
- House voteMarch 9, 2026
157 yea, 0 nay (3 not voting, 17 excused)
Topics
- pharmacy benefits managers
- prescription drug prices
- pharmacy access
- health policy
- legislative study committees