Very few people know what pharmacy benefit managers do. The three biggest rival the largest corporations in the world in terms of market capitalization, revenue and profits.The CVS Health pharmacy service segment, for example, reported $134 billion in revenue last year.
The PBMs exert enormous influence on the health care system. They decide which prescription drugs your insurance will cover, how much you’ll pay, and, increasingly, which pharmacies you must use to get them.
While PBMs were created to manage costs, drug prices have exploded over the past 10 years, with a 30 percent increase in the last four years alone. From 1987 to 2017, patients’ actual out-of-pocket costs increased by 180 percent. And simultaneously, because of some manipulative business practices such as reimbursing pharmacies less than it costs them to dispense medicine, many local pharmacies are closing.
Higher prices. Fewer choices. It’s not supposed to be this way.
Print Page
Email to a Friend