12 state financial officers commit to encourage compliance with PBM rule

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(The Center Square) – Twelve state financial officers sent a letter to the Department of Labor praising it for providing employers with necessary information to help manage and save on healthcare costs, while also committing to help the department enforce Trump’s proposed Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) rule.

“Healthcare costs continue to rise, and employers that provide health benefits should know exactly where those dollars are going,” South Carolina Treasurer and letter signer Curtis Loftis told The Center Square

“This is about transparency, accountability and giving employers access to the information they need to better manage those costs,” Loftis said. “When there is greater transparency in healthcare spending, businesses, employees and taxpayers all stand to benefit.” 

Another signer of the letter, North Dakota State Treasurer Thomas Beadle, told The Center Square: “Our hope in sending this letter is to build on the work that has already been done, expand their enforcement efforts against anyone who might engage in abusive practices, and reaffirm our commitment to working for our taxpayers to fight for transparency and clarity in the markets.”

Beadle told The Center Square that he personally joined the letter “because insurance and PBM costs have a direct impact to state finances.”

“US Healthcare spending has significant impacts on every company’s balance sheet,” Beadle said. “Lack of transparency in fees or ability to see through the data and ensure proper auditing means the scale of possible overcharging could be market moving and erode shareholder value.

“As states, we are institutional investors with exposure to firms large and small, and ensuring this transparency and clarity in fees and protection of audit rights is essential to good stewardship of our taxpayer dollars,” Beadle said. 

“This impacts our taxpayers in many ways, but especially in our pension funds and school trust funds,” Beadle said.

The twelve signers of the letter to the Department of Labor include Indiana Comptroller Elise Nieshalla, Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball, Kentucky Treasurer Mark Metcalf, Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, Montana Auditor Jim Brown, Nebraska Auditor Mike Foley, Nebraska Treasurer Joey Spellerberg, North Dakota Treasurer Thomas Beadle, South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis, Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks, West Virginia Treasurer Larry Pack, and Wyoming Treasurer Curt Meier. 

Only Beadle and Loftis were able to provide comment by publishing. The Department of Labor has not yet responded.

The 12 state financial officers wrote in their letter to the Department of Labor that they “commend recent efforts” by the department “to increase ERISA group health-plan access to plan data and related transactions and decrease costs in the healthcare industry.”

Additionally, the officers indicated their “willingness to encourage compliance with Department rulemaking and guidance in this regard,” including Trump’s new proposed pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) rule, the letter said.

“The Department’s January 2026 proposed rule to improve the transparency of PBM fee disclosure is also a critical step towards accountability in employer-sponsored health plans,” the officers wrote.

CEO OJ Oleka of the State Financial Officers Foundation told The Center Square: “With the help of state financial officers across the nation, finalizing and expanding the proposed PBM rule final would be not just an impactful reform for employers and their employees but also represent one of the most significant domestic policy achievements in the healthcare space of the last half-century.”