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Friday, April 28th, 2017

A huge pharma middleman just lost its biggest customer — and it shows how drug pricing really works

Author:     Lydia Ramsey and Skye Gould
Source:     Business Insider
Publication Date:     Apr. 25, 2017, 6:57 AM
Link: A huge pharma middleman just lost its biggest customer — and it shows how drug pricing really works
Stephan:   Here is how you are routinely robbed by the pharmaceutical thugs of the American illness profit system.  This is the first time I have seen it laid out in detail so people can understand it at a glance. I hope you, my readers, are clear that the healthcare debate is not about wellness, it is about how to preserve the profits of the various components of a system whose only interest is to maximize profit. We have terrible health care in the United States, and we pay more for this shoddy system than any other nation in the world.

Express Scripts is losing a big customer. Anthem, the big health insurer, is ending its contract with the company following a 2016 lawsuit.

Anthem claimed Express Scripts overcharged the insurer by billions of dollars. Anthem contracts with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) like Express Scripts to help negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. Anthem accused Express Scripts of not passing along those savings, claiming Express Scripts overcharged the insurer by billions of dollars. Anthem is responsible for roughly 18% of Express Scripts’ revenue.

The relationship between Anthem and PBMs like Express Scripts shows that it’s not just drugmakers that are to blame for the rising price prescription prices.

For a single prescription drug, there are often five companies involved, from development all the way to your medicine cabinet. Each company makes a tidy profit along the way. And as prices increase, so do those profits.

“The current model is costing health plans, employers, and consumers much more money than it needs to,” said Michael Rea, the CEO of Rx Savings Solutions, which works with consumers and employers that are paying for healthcare understand their drug prices.

Let’s take a […]

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2 Comments

  1. David Axtell on Friday, April 28, 2017 at 7:44 am

    Link to full article does not work!

  2. Beth Alexander on Friday, April 28, 2017 at 8:36 am

    The link to the full article has been corrected.