"Cost cutting" middlemen reap millions via drug pricing, data shows

[Ohiogal]

From the ongoing series about drug prices from the Columbus Dispatch.

"A middleman company hired to keep the state's prescription-drug prices in check for Ohioans on Medicaid is receiving millions in taxpayer money meant to provide medications for the poor and disabled.

Records of transactions provided to The Dispatch from 40 pharmacies across Ohio show that CVS Caremark routinely billed the state for drugs at a far higher amount than it paid pharmacies to fill the prescriptions. The state-sanctioned practice, known as "spread pricing," allows the middlemen, called pharmacy benefit managers, to keep the difference on medications used to treat health concerns ranging from mental illness to osteoporosis.

"PBMs have been fighting transparency, accountability and fiduciary obligations for years, and now I think we know why," said Antonio Ciaccia, a lobbyist for the Ohio Pharmacists Association. "PBMs criticize drug companies for inflating their prices. Here it seems they are the ones inflating prices."

http://gatehousenews.com/sideeffects/home/site/dispatch.com?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GHM_Daily_Newsletter&utm_content=COLD_CD

It's so complicated!