News
from the fight to #SaveIndiePharmacy
New York Times’ The Middlemen series
Giant Companies Took Secret Payments to Allow Free Flow of Opioids
Drugmakers including Purdue Pharma paid pharmacy benefit managers not to restrict painkiller prescriptions, a New York Times investigation found.
Lawmakers Plot to Force Health Insurers to Sell Off Pharmacies
Bipartisan bills would make healthcare companies with pharmacy-benefit managers divest their pharmacies
UnitedHealthcare CEO’s slaying brings criticism of U.S. insurance industry to a boiling point
Greater transparency from health insurers is sought as costs of insurance continue to grow faster than wages.
Pharmacy benefit managers: What journalists need to know about the prescription drug middleman industry
It may sound counterintuitive, but firms that were created to negotiate better deals for consumers on medicines instead have sometimes driven up the costs of prescriptions — while also putting the survival of community pharmacies at risk.
Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter Delivers Remarks on the Platformization of Health care
“In 2010, the big insurers promoted the narrative that single payer was a threat to Americans. Nearly 15 years later, we may well be accelerating the march to single payer, just not the kind anyone imagined in 2010, or wants today.
The moment for this discussion is now and the timing is urgent.” —AAG Jonathan Kanter
‘Not medically necessary’: Inside the company helping America’s biggest health insurers deny coverage for care
Every day, patients across America crack open envelopes with bad news. Yet another health insurer has decided not to pay for a treatment that their doctor has recommended. Sometimes it’s a no for an MRI for a high school wrestler with a strained back. Sometimes for a cancer procedure that will help a grandmother with a throat tumor. Sometimes for a heart scan for a truck driver feeling short of breath.
‘Ghost network’ of US healthcare providers amounts to fraud, lawsuit says
Class action finds ‘staggering’ cases of people struggling to find mental health care coinciding with mental health crisis
The Powerful Companies Driving Local Drugstores Out of Business
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 .
Pa. pharmacists say they’re receiving less money for drugs dispensed to Medicaid patients
Pennsylvania DHS says it will try to compel the insurance companies to reverse course, even though violated state contracts requiring that changes to pharmacy reimbursement rates be cleared with DHS first.
Walgreens Says It Will Close 1,200 Stores
The pharmacy giant said it would close the stores over the next three years and plans to “redeploy” the majority of the workers at the closed stores.
Walgreens to Pay More than $100 Million to Settle Claims of Billing Government for Undispensed Prescriptions
Billing government programs for prescriptions your customers never received can get you in hot water.
How Chaos at Chain Pharmacies Is Putting Patients at Risk
Pharmacists across the U.S. warn that the push to do more with less has made medication errors more likely. “I am a danger to the public,” one wrote to a regulator.
Note: This article was last updated on October 13, 2021.
Indiana paid $7 billion to administer prescription drug benefits in five-year period according to new report
Indiana lawmakers are calling for more oversight of “pharmacy benefit managers,” or “PBMs” for short, following a report presented to the Health Care Cost Oversight Task Force this week. According to that preliminary report, Indiana paid $7 billion to administer prescription drug benefits for Hoosiers enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program and state employee plan through FY 2017 through FY 2022.
High insulin prices spur a federal lawsuit against three pharmacy benefit managers
The federal government is suing some big pharmacy benefit managers over a system of drug rebates that regulators say has made the price of insulin soar for diabetic patients.
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.
Senator Wiener Responds to Governor’s Veto of Pharmacy Benefit Manager Bill
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation to rein in anticompetitive practices pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are using to drive up prescription drug prices and forcing independent pharmacies out of business. As a result, California remains one of the only states to leave the industry, which controls virtually all prescription drugs on the market, essentially unregulated. As a result, Californians will continue to pay more for health care and will continue to have limited access to their neighborhood pharmacies.
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.
Bruised by Government Report, Cigna's Pharmacy Business Sues the Federal Trade Commission
Whistleblower, former Cigna VP, and reformed insurance propagandist Wendell Potter takes you behind the scenes to provide a glimpse into the reasoning behind the lawsuit his former company filed this week against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Drugmakers including Purdue Pharma paid pharmacy benefit managers not to restrict painkiller prescriptions, a New York Times investigation found.