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Mississippi, You’re On My Mind
New research by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts has found that the “U.S. wasted $418 billion in 2012 based on bad medication-related decisions, and the impact was most deeply felt in those states that could least afford it.” The Express Scripts analysis looked at pharmacy-related decisions …
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NCPA Endorses Bill to Increase Medicare Drug Costs
With Medicare spending representing a massive and growing part of federal deficits, why would anyone want to increase Medicare costs? But that’s just what new legislation backed by the National Community Pharmacists Association would do. The bill, S. 867, introduced on May 6, 2013, by Senators …
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New Report Details Potential Medicaid Savings from Using PBM Tools
In addition to offering significant savings for private health insurers, pharmacy benefit management (PBM) tools could save the Federal government and state governments $74.4 billion in Medicaid costs over ten years according to a new report by the Menges Group prepared for the Pharmaceutical Care …
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Pharmaceutical Companies Playing on Safety Rules to Impede Cost-Saving Generics
In a recent post, we talked about how pharmaceutical companies use “evergreen” techniques to work around the expiration of patents and extend profitable exclusivity periods for branded drugs. Now the New York Times has revealed another set of techniques in what pharmaceutical companies euphemistically call …
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Wall St. Journal and Academic Look at Adverse Effects of Independent Pharmacy Efforts to Get PBM Pricing Data
A Wall Street Journal article, “Drugstores Press for Pricing Data,” (Mar. 27, 2013) takes a close look at independent pharmacy lobby efforts to get new laws in Oregon and other states forcing pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to turn over to pharmacies sensitive pricing information. The …
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Good vs. Bad Regulation
There are times when enhanced government regulation in health care is desperately needed to protect the public and to restore trust and confidence in certain parts of the system. The recent, tragic case of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy effectively acting like a drug manufacturer – …
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An Academic Looks at Problems with Pharmacy Board Regulation of PBMs
In an earlier piece, we looked at the questionable expansion of state pharmacy board regulatory activities including into such areas as regulation of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Now there is a new, in-depth article by Professor Joanna Shepherd of the Emory University School of Law, …
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Doctors – There Really is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
We all know that brand-name drug companies will do whatever they can to promote the use of their products over less expensive generic competition. For example, the drug companies run consumer-directed commercials on television with cute cartoon characters offering to solve every ailment from depression …
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Biotech Companies Lobbying to Impede Cost-Saving Biosimilars
We have previously written about how the Affordable Care Act’s provisions on biosimilar drugs represent a missed opportunity to bring cost-saving biosimilar drugs to market. Now, a new study from Grant Thornton shows just how much money these biosimilar drugs could save. According to the …
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Garbage In, Garbage Out: How NOT to Design Survey Research
It’s not often an advocacy group releases quasi-research with findings antithetical to long-held public policy positions, but the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) recently did just that. The NCPA has been hostile to many of the pharmacy benefit management tools that private and public …
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