News from the fight to
#SaveIndependentPharmacy
New York Times The Middlemen series
FTC head Lina Khan fighting Big Tech, Big Pharma and Big Groceries as trustbuster
FTC Chair Lena Khan was featured on a segment of 60 Minutes this past Sunday. The youngest-ever chair of the Federal Trade Commission sat down with Lesley Stahl to discuss how corporate consolidation and anti-competitive business practices are driving up prices throughout the U.S. economy.
Press Conference on PBM Abuse & H.R.9096 The Pharmacists Fight Back Act
Representatives Jake Auchincloss (D - MA) and Diana Harshbarger (R - TN) hold a press conference on PBM abuses, the destruction it causes to patients and pharmacies, and how The Pharmacists Fight Back Act H.R.9096 will stop it!
Chairman Comer Calls on PBM Executives to Correct Hearing Testimony
At the House Oversight Committee’s hearing, the PBM chief executives made statements that contradict the Committee’s and the Federal Trade Commission’s findings about the PBMs’ self-benefitting practices that jeopardize patient care, undermine local pharmacies, and raise prescription drug prices. The chief executives for CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and Optum Rx claimed they do not steer patients to PBM-owned pharmacies. The executives also made claims contradicting the Committee’s and FTC’s findings regarding contract negotiations, contract opt outs, and payments to pharmacies.
Minnesota branch of the Harris-Walz campaign holds panel to celebrate the anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act
Our owner and pharmacist John Hoeschen was a featured panelist at a prescription drug cost roundtable hosted by the Harris-Walz campaign in Rochester, MN.
Pharmacy benefit managers under fire in House hearing
Pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen who negotiate drug prices for millions of Americans, were grilled at a congressional hearing on July 23rd.
Watch the full congressional hearing here.
Drug middlemen in the hot seat: Q&A with USC Schaeffer Center’s Erin Trish
Constantly rising prescription drug prices appear to be driven in part by a little-understood group of firms called “pharmacy benefit managers.” USC Schaeffer Center research on the topic has the attention of the FTC and Congress, which has called executives to testify next week.
FTC Releases Interim Staff Report on Prescription Drug Middlemen
Report details how prescription drug middleman profit at the expense of patients by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies
How We Voted in 2016 Contributed to UnitedHealth's Acquisition of Change Healthcare
Also: Patient information may be even more at risk than we've been told.
Under threat from industry ‘middlemen,’ independent pharmacies gain allies in D.C., Frankfort
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear joined a White House roundtable discussion on prescription drug costs that also featured entrepreneur Mark Cuban and several community pharmacists from around the country.
A Bipartisan Coalition of 39 State Attorneys General Urge Congressional Action on Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reform
The bipartisan group of signatories included Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Why Drugs Are Disappearing From Your Insurance Coverage
Powerful companies are removing hundreds of medicines from insurance plans — and they’re spending millions to stop attempts at reform.
The biggest Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are profiting by systematically underpaying independent drugstores, creating “pharmacy deserts” across the country.
The third in “THE MIDDLEMEN” series of articles by reporters Rebecca Robins and Reed Abelson investigating PBMs .