Lowering the cost of prescription drugs for patients at the pharmacy counter is a top priority for both political parties. U.S. Congress can come together this year to bring real savings by increasing the transparency and accountability of the big companies that act as middlemen between consumers and insurance companies— and dramatically affect the prices we pay for drugs.

Two important bills in the U.S. Senate would bring reform to these big companies — known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) — and greatly lessen their detrimental impact on the wallets of American consumers, particularly seniors. Currently, just three of these big PBMs control 80% of the market for prescription drugs. They operate with little public scrutiny. As a result, few Coloradans are aware of the dominating role they play in the costs we pay for medicine.

PBMs create and manage drug formularies that determine which drugs will, or won’t, be covered by insurance. They determine what plan sponsors pay for providing coverage to Americans and what patients pay out of pocket. But they don’t provide patient services or produce a tangible product — they simply move dollars around for their own benefit.

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This is a very lucrative business model for the companies. PBMs have been reaping record profits from entities that fund health insurance plans, including the federal and state governments, employers and labor unions. The problem is as PBM profits soar, this success has not resulted in drug savings for Colorado patients, particularly those whose health and well-being depend on affordable access to often-expensive medications.

Consider one practice that illustrates the problem before Congress: PBMs aggressively negotiate large rebates from drug companies. These rebates dramatically cut insurance companies’ costs for prescription medicines. Common sense would dictate insurance companies would pass along the savings to patients.

Not so.

Rather, the insurance companies pocket the dollars they save. Consumers fail to benefit, and aren’t even aware the discount system exists. Investigations by the government and media have shown these vast sums of money are not benefiting patients at the pharmacy counter.

The primary focus of PBMs is too often on dollars and cents and not medical common sense. Patients have raised concerns the specific prescription drugs their physicians prescribe are often denied. Instead, the PBMs insert themselves in the middle, pushing patients toward a more expensive medicine, even though it was not what the physician recommended.

Despite these disturbing facts, the PBM industry has avoided the accountability urgently needed.

That can change if Congress passes two excellent, bipartisan bills, S. 2973 and S. 3430, before the end of this year. These are common-sense measures that can, and should, earn widespread support. These measures would protect American seniors and ensure PBMs aren’t unjustly profiting off the cost of medications.

These two bills will make the contracting practices used by PBMs much more transparent. This would allow health plan sponsors and government programs to monitor the operations of the PBMs. Businesses and workers alike would then have important data about the components of drug costs including the discounts, fees and rebates the PBMs negotiated with drug manufacturers.

When patients are armed with this significant data, they can — at long last — know whether the price at the counter is higher than what PBMs are paying for the same medication.

This transparency would, in turn, ensure PBMs share the savings they are receiving with patients. Under this reform, newly empowered consumers will see significant cost savings when they pick up their prescriptions.

After years of debate and discussions about how to cut high drug prices, Congress can send an early holiday gift to the American people by enacting PBM accountability legislation this year. This important legislation is needed now because PBMs’ business practices, which rely on their existing lack of transparency and absence of accountability, affect more than 250 million Americans. The post-election session is often the best time for crafting meaningful, bipartisan bills. Colorado U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper can score a huge win for their Colorado constituents, and for all American patients, by bringing true transparency and accountability to PBMs that have had a free ride for far too long.

Peggy Dennis, a Colorado native and resident of Denver, is an eight-year survivor of non-small-cell lung cancer who has participated in several clinical trials and is an advocate for patient rights and research with the Exon 20 Group of ICAN, International Cancer Advocacy Network.