OptumRX Continues The Game
Another perfect example of PBM attempted overreach: changing a contract requirement in the middle of the contract term, creating hostile dispensing environment(s) for retail dispensing pharmacies, potentially conflicting already existing multiple state & federal laws, creating anticompetitive scenarios – with the only potential intent to hold pharmacies hostage for funds, with zero recourse outside of […]
The Silent Collapse of America’s Pharmacies — And Why Our Health Depends on Saving Them
The Silent Collapse of America’s Pharmacies — And Why Our Health Depends on Saving Them If a hospital shut down in your town, it would make headlines. If the last primary-care clinic closed, local leaders would hold emergency meetings. But when a pharmacy closes — even though pharmacies provide more day-to-day health care than almost […]
Priorities and Partisanship: Why Many States Stall or Scale Down PBM Reform
Even though pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reforms are broadly popular with voters, pharmacists, and even many patient groups, the politics of large-scale reform are far more complicated. In many states, PBM legislation does not fail because lawmakers oppose patient choice — it fails because it competes with dozens of other legislative pressures and navigates partisan […]
Dire Straights from Missouri
Missouri leads most trends in healthcare shortages, at an ever-growing rate. Numerous factors are at play, and need to be addressed for patient safety.
States with Current PBM Legislation
Iowa Iowa recently enacted a law (Senate File 383) that forbids PBMs from steering patients toward certain pharmacies, requires reimbursement to any pharmacy at or above acquisition cost (plus a dispensing fee), and mandates pass-through of rebates rather than allowing PBMs to pocket them. (Healthcare Dive) As a result, patients in Iowa should have more […]
Arkansas, PBMs, and patient choice: why new rules matter — and what still needs fixing
When the “middle-man” runs the drugstore: why Arkansas hit the brakes When a giant corporation acts as both the “middle-man” setting drug prices and also owns the pharmacy filling those prescriptions, something has to give. That’s the hard truth lawmakers in Arkansas confronted with the passage of HB 1150 (Act 624), signed into law April […]