HB 321 Maryland House of Delegates · 2025 Regular Session

Pharmacy Benefits Managers – Definition of Purchaser and Alteration of Application of Law

HB 321 amends Maryland law to change the definition of "purchaser" for pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) regulations, specifically excluding certain nonprofit health maintenance organizations (HMOs) from this definition. This removes restrictions that previously limited how certain insurance laws applied to PBMs working on behalf of carriers. The bill directly affects nonprofit HMOs that operate internal pharmacies and PBMs managing prescription drug coverage for them. These changes clarify regulatory scope without altering core PBM oversight requirements.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Feb 2025

House of Delegates Passage

Feb 2025

Senate Passage

Governor

Introduced Jan 10, 2025 Last action Mar 19, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

First - Pharmacy Benefits Managers – Definition of Purchaser and Alteration of Application of Law → Third - Pharmacy Benefits Managers – Definition of Purchaser and Alteration of Application of Law · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was amended to expand its scope by adding a requirement for the Maryland Insurance Administration to convene a workgroup to review pharmacy benefits manager regulations, specialty pharmacies, and antisteering issues. The sponsor list was updated to include additional delegates, and the bill's committee status was marked as favorably amended and adopted by the House.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to include a mandate for creating a workgroup to study pharmacy benefits manager regulations, specialty pharmacies, and antisteering practices.

REQUIREMENT

Added a requirement for the Maryland Insurance Administration to convene a workgroup to review and make recommendations on pharmacy benefits manager regulations, specialty pharmacies, and antisteering.

TECHNICAL

Updated the bill's sponsor list to include additional delegates (Alston, Bagnall, Bhandari, Chisholm, Cullison, Guzzone, Hill, Hutchinson, S. Johnson, Kaiser, Kerr, Lopez, Martinez, M. Morgan, Pena-Melnyk, Reilly, Szeliga, White Holland, Woods, and Woorman) and changed the committee report status to favorable with amendments.

Changed the bill reference from SB 626/24 to SB 303 in the header information.

Floor votes · House of Delegates Feb 13, 2025

How they voted

135–0

Passed · 2 other

Total votes 137

Feb 13, 2025

D Democratic98

96 Yea 2

97% Yea

R Republican39

39 Yea

100% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 14, 2025

Committee

Referred Finance

upper

Feb 13, 2025

Lower · Passed

Third Reading Passed

lower

Feb 11, 2025

Lower · Passed

Favorable with Amendments {

lower

Feb 10, 2025

Lower · Passed

Favorable with Amendments Report by Health and Government Operations

lower

Jan 10, 2025

Committee

First Reading Health and Government Operations

lower

20 primary · 0 co-sponsors