MADISON, Wis. — Lawmakers in Madison passed several bills in 2021, and most of those laws took effect right after Gov. Tony Evers signed them.
However, a handful of laws did not go into effect until the start of 2022. One in particular deals with how much you pay at the pharmacy.
Among the most significant changes to come with the new year is more regulation over pharmacy benefit managers, which are often referred to as PBMs. You can think of them as a sort of middle man between pharmacists and insurance companies.
Pharmacist Thad Schumacher, who owns Fitchburg Family Pharmacy, said the new law will save him people power, especially when it comes to reimbursements from PBMs.
“What this law does is restricts the PBMs from being able to go back more than a certain period of time, I think it's two years, and it doesn't allow them to recoup any money based on doting i's or crossing t's,” Schumacher said.
Many pharmacists across the state also complained about the practices used by PBMs and said, often, they were prevented from telling their customers about other cheaper, generic options.
“If somebody came to the pharmacy looking for a prescription, and their co-pay was very high for that drug their prescriber had offered them, we couldn't tell them that there was a cheaper alternative or there was a cheaper way to purchase that drug or that there [were] other options available to them,” Schumacher said.
The newly enacted law lifts so-called “gag orders” and requires PBMs to be licensed with the state if they weren't already.
According to the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, as of June when transparency reports were due, a total of 24 Pharmacy Benefit Managers filed reports. However, at the time they filed documents, six were not yet licensed.
The legislation regulating PBMs passed last year had broad, bipartisan support. Lawmakers at the time sought to keep prescription drug prices and premiums down for consumers. Schumacher hopes to make that a reality with the law now in effect.
“Knowledge is power, and if we can give the consumer more options, the full range of options that are available to them, and the full range of prices that are available to them, then I think the consumer is going to win,” Schumacher said.
A law regulating the use of force by police officers also went into effect at the beginning of the year.
Law enforcement officers now have a legal “duty to intervene” if a fellow officer uses excessive force.
Police officers are also required to report if they witness a colleague using force that goes beyond department standards.
The new laws stem from the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha after which the Task Force on Racial Disparities was created to propose new laws.
Every state does it a little bit differently. In Wisconsin, a bill is published the day after the governor has signed it, and it goes into effect a day after it is published, so the process moves quickly compared to neighboring states.
In Minnesota, most acts that aren't fiscal-related take effect on Aug. 1.
For Michigan, most new laws don't go into effect until at least 90 days after the legislative session has ended. However, there are exceptions for bills passed by a certain threshold.
In Illinois, depending on when a bill is passed, laws generally go into effect in either June or January.
As for Wisconsin, some bills don't go into effect right away because they set a specific date, such as Jan. 1, usually to provide time to comply with a new law.