Pharmacy Benefit Managers: The American Drug Cartel.
In this episode, Max breaks down the biggest scandal in the healthcare industry (and that’s saying a lot). We walk through how a bunch of pencil pushing pharmacy middlemen became so powerful they bought out the biggest health insurance companies and pharmacy chains, and did it through hiking up drug prices, kickbacks and taking advantage of government contracts. This is the story of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and how they became the American Drug Cartel.
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:36
Sponsors: 00:03:14
Chapter One: The Birth of the American Drug Mafia. 00:04:47
Chapter Two: Unraveling the Supply Chain. 00:16:15
Chapter Three: Is that all? Please tell me that’s all. 00:28:09
Chapter Four: Bring it home, Max. 00:38:44
Post Show Musings: 00:45:24
Outro: 00:01:16
Resources
NAIC: Pharmacy Benefit Managers
Healthcare Dive: FTC launches investigation into PBMs; CVS, UnitedHealth, Cigna and more hit with requests for data
FTC: FTC Launches Inquiry Into Prescription Drug Middlemen Industry
Healthcare Dive: PBM practices are keeping consumers from generics savings, white paper finds
Association for Accessible Medicines: US Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Savings Report 2021
Lever News: Who’s Killing Your Independent Pharmacy?
PSSNY: PBM Basics
USC: PBMs Are Inflating the Cost of Generic Drugs. They Must Be Reined In
Jama Network: Costco v Medicare study
Frier Levitt: AUDITING PBMs
National Bureau of Economic Research: CVS Response: A world without PBMs: Unpacking the data
FTC: White House Roundtable PBMs
Yahoo Finance: 30 Largest Companies by Revenue
UNFTR Episode Resources
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