Rosenbloom: No More Exploitation of Seniors, Taxpayers by PBMs

DATE: October 3, 2018

Published by Health Economics

Pharmacy benefit managers have long enough taken advantage seniors and taxpayers in the U.S. through strategies that exploit Medicare, Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition President/CEO Alan Rosenbloom writes in a recent article published on McKnight’s.

High costs under Medicare Part D, Rosenbloom writes, has facilitated an “anti-competitive oligopoly,” filling the pockets of conglomerates whose tendrils span across inter-related markets, including private insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and pharma chains.

“In fact, only three such conglomerates dominate the PBM market and chain pharmacies in the retail, mail order, specialty and LTC pharmacy markets, while increasingly controlling predominant Part D Plans,” Rosenbloom writes.

According to Rosenbloom, three PBMs connected to the conglomerates process some 90 percent of the prescriptions for LTC pharmacies.

“This market concentration … is stifling competition and driving up health care costs for seniors and taxpayers alike,” he writes.

Click here to see the original article on the Health Economics website.