Should the same company both dispense medicines and work with insurance companies and drug makers to set how much you pay for drugs?

I'm David Brancaccio. New legislation introduced in both the House and Senate would make it illegal for one company to own both a pharmacy and a pharmacy benefit management company.

A PBM helps health insurers manage their

prescription drug benefits and negotiates prices and rebates. CVS has both pharmacies and a benefits

management division, same with Cigna and United Health. As marketplaces Samantha Fields report,

some lawmakers see a conflict of interest. Pharmacy benefit managers do two primary things for health insurance companies,

according to Matthew Fiedler at the Brookings Institution.

They negotiate with drug manufacturers and negotiate prices with pharmacies.

The thing is, the benefit manager and the pharmacy they're negotiating with are often owned by the same

parent company.

Naird-Zood at USC says think of it like this.

Suppose you hire my wife to negotiate with me on your behalf.

And you say, hey, I'm making a deal with your husband, and I want you to get a good outcome for me.

Wouldn't you be like, hey, my, oh my God, there's a conflict of interest.

She's going to do a terrible job negotiating because she's negotiating with her family.

Suit says it's the same thing here.

There's little incentive for benefit managers to negotiate lower prices for health plans at a pharmacy their parent company owns.

And the concern is that can drive up costs for health plans and lead to higher premiums for consumers.

There's another issue, too.

Now imagine there's a CVS pharmacy, and right next to that CVS pharmacy is an independent pharmacy.

And they're competitors, but the pharmacy benefits manager they're both negotiating with is owned by CVS.

Which pharmacy is likely to get a better deal?

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