Did you know that 66% of all American adults take a prescription drug? Nearly all of those 131 million Americans rely on a pharmacist to dispense that medication at a pharmacy, whether at a chain pharmacy, a local independent pharmacy, or a grocery store.
Pharmacies form the foundation of nearly every community in this country, and both patients and pharmacies are under threat from PBMs and their harmful business practices. PBMs have directly led to the lights going out for thousands of pharmacies from coast to coast. They also drive up the cost you pay for medication while limiting, and in some cases denying, coverage of your medicine.
Data has shown that PBMs:
- artificially inflate the cost of drugs without fully reimbursing pharmacies for the drugs they dispense
- have led to increases in purchasers’ and patients’ drug prices through price discrimination
- use “list prices” that do not reflect the final cost of drugs
- force harmful retroactive direct and indirect fees and other “clawback” mechanisms on pharmacies, forcing smaller and independent pharmacies to close
PBMs are not a part of the pharmacist/patient relationship. PBMs drive up costs without adding value to patients and our health care system. PBMs’ business practices have robbed many communities of necessary health care, in towns and rural areas as well as in many cities with underserved communities, where the community pharmacy often is the only health care provider for miles around.
