This story was first published May 21, 2018 and has been updated.
Guess who’s back grabbing headlines? Pharmacy benefit managers — those companies that serve as middlemen in the prescription drug pipeline. Plans to reduce the cost of medicines often target so-called PBMs as primary culprits behind the nation’s out-of-control drug prices.
But consumers often don’t notice or understand PBMs and how they factor into determining costs at the pharmacy counter. This KHN video, brought out from our vault, details the emergence of these multimillion-dollar corporations and the impact they have on medication costs and patients’ access to treatments.
For more information on drug pricing issues, check out this chart and these videos:
Tracking Who Makes Money On A Brand-Name Drug
Sounds Like A Good Idea? Regulating Drug Prices
KHN also offers other videos examining hot topics such as selling insurance across state lines, high-risk insurance pools, Medicare’s observation care status and how the health law could be disassembled through the congressional budget reconciliation process.
