"Do prescription drug middlemen help keep prices high?" PBS NewsHour 8/11/2018
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Americans pay more for prescription drugs than any country in the world, and the pharmaceutical industry earns billions in profits each year. Critics blame Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs, for a portion of those high costs through their role as middlemen between insurance plans, drug makers and pharmacies—but PBMs say they save consumers money. NewsHour Weekend Megan Thompson reports.
MEGAN THOMPSON (NewsHour): So Falkowitz did some research online. His aunt was taking eight drugs for things like dementia and high blood pressure. She was paying close to $103 in insurance copays for those drugs every month. Falkowitz found he could get those exact same drugs for $65, if he paid out of pocket at an independent pharmacy, not using his aunt’s insurance plan at all. That’s nearly 40 percent less. Falkowitz manages a medical practice and deals with insurance plans all the time. He says it was a total surprise.
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