News from the fight to
#SaveIndependentPharmacy
New York Times The Middlemen series
Legalized Racketeering? How PBMs Skirt the Law to Rake in Billions
Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) have been under scrutiny lately for their actions as middlemen in the flow of prescription drugs from manufacturers to patients. But perhaps their worst actions are buried within a maze of consolidation and paperwork. Big Insurance has consolidated the entire pharmaceutical benefit, claim, and dispensing sector to squeeze as much money out of patients as possible.
Rally outside Optum HQ brings debate over pharmacy benefits managers to Twin Cities
Patients, providers, and legislators gathered to allege biggest players are ballooning drug costs while running independent pharmacies out of business; Optum denied claims.
Medicare patient wrongly sent to collections in dispute between two UnitedHealth Group entities
The Minnesota-based insurer said he owed $275. The surgery center in St. Cloud wanted another $3,300. UnitedHealth owns both and is now apologizing.
Health Care’s Colossus
How UnitedHealth harnesses its physician empire to squeeze profits out of patients
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.
Zoomer Hackers Shut Down the Biggest Extortion Ring of All
A ransomware gang cripples UnitedHealthcare. Could a comprehensive antitrust investigation finish the job?
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 .