Gordon vetoes some portions of prescription drug bill

CHEYENNE (WNE)— Gov. Mark Gordon exercised his line item veto authority on portions of Senate File 151/ SEA No. 90, “Wyoming prescription drug transparency act,” before signing it Friday.

He noted it has important policy changes related to rural, independent pharmacists, a critical component of health care in Wyoming. He vetoed portions of the bill that could have had significant impacts on prescription costs for Wyoming consumers, according to a news release from Gordon’s office.

To demonstrate his desire to provide financial relief to rural, independent pharmacies, Gordon signed a Governor’s Directive for the Wyoming Department of Administration and Information to negotiate payment of an increased amount of dispensing fee claims of up to $10 per brand label claim and $12 per generic brand claim to independent pharmacists participating in the Wyoming State Employees’ and Officials’ Group Insurance program.

The governor did line-item several provisions in the bill and wrote to legislators that the act, as drafted, “may do more harm than good, inadvertently shifting increased and burdensome pharmaceutical costs to consumers, despite the good work done by all involved to provide local relief.”

This story was published on Mar. 18, 2023.