Dear PCMA, We need to talk. It’s not good news. First, we feel we should thank you. Remarkably, your clients have somehow united the U.S. in a way usually reserved for terrorist attacks and tragic natural disasters. Also, we’re impressed at your latest PR offensive. How fascinating to watch the…

Last month, Janssen Pharmaceuticals released its 5th annual U.S. Transparency Report with a notable new addition: a detailed synopsis of how rebates, now hard-wired into insurance benefit design, essentially derail patients from accessing affordable medication. These access to care issues occur even as an elite group of Fortune 15 insurers…

Prescription drug cost is one of the few issues everyone can agree needs addressing, yet very few politicians seem able to abandon party-line rhetoric to confront the issue. Wealthy corporate campaign donations are now overriding basic common sense when it comes to reining in obvious systemic problems. Like climate change…

If you thought 2021, aka the follow-up to When Satan met 2020, seemed like a mixed bag of forward momentum and frustrating setbacks in the move to reform PBMs, you’re in good company. As we look over the year that was 2021, we’re encouraged by many of the high points…

It’s feeling a lot like PBM reform is getting really real as the largest pharmacy benefit managers, especially those that might own or exert enormous influence over large retail pharmacies, come under fire for issues related to real-world concerns for patient safety, drug pricing and limiting access to medications. First…

Like many community pharmacies, Newman Family Pharmacy is the kind of pharmacy patients choose for its incomparable commitment to service and care. A smaller pharmacy located in the heart of Chesapeake — Virginia’s working class and military family neighborhoods — Newman Family Pharmacy was set up to serve the very…

In the world of Big Healthcare mergers and acquisitions, it’s deja vu all over again. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating UnitedHealth Group’s proposed purchase of Change Healthcare, self-described in its Wikipedia entry as “a provider of revenue and payment cycle management and clinical information exchange solutions, connecting…

4 AM, Saturday morning. The pharmacist packs her car with vaccine supplies and documentation, then hits the road. It’s well before sunrise, but 5 hours and counting until the community clinic starts. …

2021. So far for pharmacies, it’s been a wild ride. The much-anticipated advent of the COVID vaccine(s) has spawned additional issues with rollout and availability capabilities — many of which can be tied back to misinformation, corporate territorialism, and lack of proper planning. Does anyone else hear a common PBM…