Opinion: Some ‘inconvenient’ truths about pharmacy benefit managers
Pharmacy benefit managers have been in the crosshairs of late, as the focus of media scrutiny, government investigations and reports, and proposed federal legislation. A few recent examples make the point: A New York Times story in June 2024 bore the headline, “Pharmacy benefit managers are driving up drug costs for millions of people, employers and the government.” The title of the Federal Trade Commission’s interim staff report released on July 9, 2024 called PBMs “The Powerful Middlemen Inflating Drug Costs and Squeezing Main Street Pharmacies.” A report from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability issued on July 23, 2024, was almost as scathing, finding that PBMs “inflate prescription drug costs and interfere with patient care for their own financial benefit.”
As these examples reflect, PBMs are widely viewed as middlemen that contribute nothing to society except for driving up prescription drug prices. That view is wrong.
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