BATON ROUGE — The debate over a bill pitting mom-and-pop drug stories against pharmacy benefit managers lasted until the final day of the 2025 legislative session, and drew the state’s attorney general into a battle with a major national chain.

A committee of House members and senators on Wednesday amended a bill that initially set rules for how pharmacists could work remotely. After the change, the proposal said any company affiliated with a pharmacy benefits manager couldn’t hold a permit to operate a drug store in the state.

"Your local pharmacist is the most accessible health professional to the community. Most of the time, you can get to your pharmacist before you can get to a doctor," said Kyle Talley, a former pharmacy technician at Floyd’s Family Pharmacy near Ponchatoula.

PBMs are middlemen among pharmaceutical companies, businesses, health insurance companies and workers. Critics say PBMs drive up the costs of medicine to ensure everyone affiliated with the plan makes money, but PBMs often say their scale allows them to negotiate lower prices, especially for commonly used drugs.

After the House and Senate conference committee amended the pharmacist bill Wednesday, CVS tapped its customer network via text and urged them to lobby against the proposal. The company said it would have to close more than 100 stores, impacting 980,000 customers, if the bill passed.

House members voted 88-4 to approve the conference committee's compromise, but the Senate didn't hold a final vote — killing the matter for now.

Attorney General Liz Murrill said CVS misused its customer list and said she was preparing a cease-and-desist order against it, despite concerns it would violate the company’s constitutional rights.

“CVS did not obtain people’s personal cell phone numbers for the purpose of using it to lobby against legislation,” Murrill said in a news conference. “If you’ve every given permission to them to use your phone number, you gave it to them for particular things, like getting a notice about a vaccine that might be available to you.

“Those are the kinds of reasons why they have your phone number, not so they can use it to lobby against legislation that hurts them,” she said.

The bill concerned last-minute language that Louisiana should deny a state permit to any pharmacy "wholly or partially owned or controlled" by a pharmacy benefit manager or one of its subsidiaries.

CVS said quick action was needed after the 11th-hour change to the bill.

"We believe we have a responsibility to inform our customers of misguided legislation that seeks to shutter their trusted pharmacy and acted accordingly," spokeswoman Amy Thibault said. "Our communication with our customers, patients and members of our community is consistent with law."

Non-CVS customers received notices Wednesday, as well, asking them to contact lawmakers.

Many pharmacies, regardless of whether they are affiliated with a PBM, maintain contact information for their customers, often to send them reminders about when prescription refills are ready or vaccinations are due.

Randal Johnson of the Louisiana Independent Pharmacies Association said benefits managers have an outsized role in the drug industry.

“The PBM is truly supposed to be a claims processor in the middle,” he said.

Instead, Talley said, independent companies are forced to accept whatever deal they can make, “knowing that it’s going to have a negative impact on our bottom line.”

“The PMS are underpaying us so bad to where you’re in a financial position where you can’t even buy the inventory that you need,” Talley said.

Murrill said that, without the legislation, rural communities could lose their drug stores as large chains undercut them on prices.

“The independent pharmacists in our communities around the state play an enormously important role,” she said, warning of “pharmaceutical-pharmacy health care deserts.”