Health insurer stocks fall as WSJ says lawmakers set to break up pharmacy-benefit managers

Reuters12-12

Dec 11 (Reuters) -

Shares of health insurers such as UnitedHealth and CVS Health fell on Wednesday after a Wall Street Journal report said a bipartisan group of lawmakers were set to introduce legislation to break up pharmacy-benefit managers.

The Senate bill, sponsored by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley, will force companies that own health insurers or pharmacy-benefit managers to divest their businesses operating pharmacies within three years, the report said.

Pharmacy-benefit managers negotiate prescription drug prices between insurers, pharmacies and drugmakers, and directly reimburse pharmacies for prescription drugs included under their agreed upon terms.

UnitedHealth shares fell 5%, while CVS Health

dropped 4.3% and Cigna slipped 4.4%.

Peers Elevance , Humana and Centene fell between 1% and 3%.

Shares of insurers have come under pressure after Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth's health insurance unit, was fatally shot outside a Manhattan hotel last week.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

((Sriparna.Roy@thomsonreuters.com;))

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