Dear Editor,
The Biden Administration has promised to reduce the high cost of prescription drugs just like the previous five presidential administrations. Every presidential administration has blamed the pharmaceutical companies for the high cost of prescription drugs, and they do need to be blamed for some of that problem. The real culprit that is unheard of in the prescription drug chain is the Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM). This group deserves just as much or maybe more blame than Big Pharma.
Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) were created several years ago to help reduce the cost of prescription drugs for commercial payors and employer groups. Since their creation the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) have morphed into some of the world’s largest corporations and corporate profit is now their main objective. The PBMs will say they help reduce prescription drug cost, but the American citizens have not seen any benefit of this so-called promise from the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). Prescription drug costs have steadily gone up every year, and the PBMs corporate profits have continually gone up.
Recently, the Biden Administration started to negotiate with several brand name drug manufacturers for lower cost on prescription drugs. The question is why this presidential administration is having to negotiate with the prescription drug companies if that is the job of the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). The Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) have failed at keeping prescription drug cost affordable, but they have succeeded in raising prescription drug prices.
Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) require the brand name drug manufacturers to pay a rebate so a particular drug will be put on the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) preferred drug list. This rebate raises the list price of the prescription drug, and this cost is passed on to the consumer in turn costing the consumer more money. Sometimes this rebate could be 50 percent of the cost of the prescription drug. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) force customers to use their own mail-order pharmacy even when the customer wants to use the pharmacy of their choice. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMS) claim they want more competition, but they want a total monopoly.
Three Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) now control 80 percent of the prescription drug benefit transactions in the United States. These three corporations have a monopoly on the prescription drug benefit, and they hold the payors, pharmacies, and the patients hostage. Congress has been holding congressional hearings in Washington D.C. on these corporate giants. These hearings have shown bipartisan support for helping reign in the real culprits of high prescription drug prices. A few years ago, the Mississippi Legislature had to pass legislation that would allow your local pharmacist to tell you that their cash price for the prescription drug was cheaper than the co-payment the Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) set for the customer. This law was needed to remove a gag clause from the Pharmacy Benefit Mangers (PBMs) contracts that penalized the local pharmacies if they informed the customer of this cheaper price.
We are witnessing a real problem with high cost of prescription drugs in the United States. The Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) have led to this problem, and their lobby groups and organizations are trying to paint a different picture. The Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) promise to reduce prescription drug cost. They are either not telling the whole story or not good at their job.
Sincerely,
Your Local Pharmacists -
Joseph Mohamed, Frank Webb, Bruce Ruschewcki, Max Sanders, Ted Webb, Christy Baker, Donna Heidel, Lucy Bain, Billy Russell, Terry Davis, Tommy Graham, Mary Beth Hardy, Guy Phillips, and Bill Jones
Your Local Pharmacy Owners -
Donna Mohamed, Wade Ward, Aaron Edwards, Sissy Tyson, and Nick King
