The IPMD Learning Lounge 

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) conducted a public poll of 1,000 Americans
highlighting significant public concern regarding prescription drug costs and the role of Pharmacy Benefit
Managers (PBMs) in drug pricing...

It's time for Drug Channels’ annual update of vertical integration among insurers, PBMs, specialty pharmacies, and providers within U.S. drug channels.

PBMs pay pharmacies a reimbursement ceiling that is below the wholesale cost of goods floor for the retail class of trade to independent pharmacies. Counterfeiting ensues. TAP deserves a medal.

The Commonwealth Fund has published a report that is a must-read for employers and lawmakers. If they read nothing else this year, this should be it.

The report is based on a recent survey of American adults to determine how many of us are adequately insured. You can read the full report here, but below are the highlights:

43% of working adults in this country were inadequately insured this year. They are, in essence, functionally uninsured...

Biden just tried to regulate CVS, United Health, and Cigna. Cigna struck back, and is now trying to wipe out independent pharmacies and harm patients. Plus, antitrust enforcers are getting real.

At first glance, Marylanders For Affordable Rx appears to be a coalition of concerned Maryland citizens. Nothing could further from the truth. Other So-called “patient coalitions” with the moniker “(State residents) for Affordable Rx” have popped up across the U.S. but are not actually patient groups at all. They are front groups created by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), a trade association/lobbying organization representing the nation’s 11 largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that pharmacists in all 50 states are now able to administer the full schedule of lifesaving immunizations for children ages 3 to 18.

PUTT Executive Director, Monique Whitney, and FDA Senior Advisor, Dr. David Gortler, PharmD, FCCP, co-authored a Summary Proposal of Recommendations to lower drug prices which was submitted to the Trump Administration on Monday, Sept. 14th. IPMD President, Sherine Joseph was a contributing author of the document.

Join PUTT co-hosts Monique Whitney & Lauren Young as they chat with representatives from IPMD, LIPA, and MIPA

This is the 3rd-grade math explanation of how Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) work: PBM denies $300 drug. They then force the doctor to use the $1200 version made by the same company with a different label, and makes the price $1194.

Spread Pricing is Stealing $70 Million* of our Tax Dollars from Maryland Medicaid Annually

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) serve as middlemen administering prescription plans for insurance companies. This middleman industry, which began innocuously in the 1960s, has now through unregulated mergers and acquisitions been reduced to 3 major companies due to lack of regulation.