Tag: PBMs
Survey: Independent pharmacies worried about ‘DIR hangover’
June 7, 2023HME News Staff
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Seventy percent of independent community pharmacy owners/managers are concerned about upcoming cash flow challenges resulting from changes to federal policy effective Jan. 1, 2024, according to a new survey released by the National Community Pharmacists Association.
The NCPA asked independent pharmacy owners/managers for insight relating to the “DIR hangover” – what it calls the period starting Jan. 1, 2024, when bills for pharmacy direct and indirect...
Voters wary of PBMs, NCPA poll finds
May 5, 2023HME News Staff
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The majority of voters know very little or nothing about pharmacy benefit managers, the largest three of which control 80% of all prescriptions in the U.S., according to a new national poll conducted by Morning Consult and released by the National Community Pharmacists Association. Eighty percent are concerned that PBMs steer patients to pharmacies their own or control to maximize their own profit, and 78% are concerned that PBMS often require patients to use their...
NCPA applauds PBM companion bill
April 5, 2023HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – The National Community Pharmacists Association is cheering the bipartisan Drug Price Transparency in Medicaid Act (S. 1038), introduced March 29 by Sens. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., which would prevent pharmacy benefit managers from using spread pricing in Medicaid managed care programs. The bill is companion legislation to H.R. 1613, introduced March 16 by Reps. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, Rick Allen, R-Ga., Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., Elise...
AMA recommends oversight of TPAs
November 16, 2022HME News Staff
HONOLULU – The American Medical Association decided at its interim meeting here to recommend that third-party administrators of specialty pharmacy benefits be included in state and federal oversight efforts of prescription drug middlemen. Regulation of pharmacy benefit managers is on the rise in response to concerns that they can have a detrimental impact on the ability of patients to access affordable prescription drugs and, for specialty pharmacy benefits, TPAs provide many of the same services,...
NCPA announces keynote speakers
August 16, 2022HME News Staff
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The National Community Pharmacists Association has announced the keynote speakers for its 2022 Annual Convention, set for Oct. 1-4 in Kansas City, Mo. The theme for this year’s convention is “Team Up! Where Teamwork Makes It All Work.” Mike Abrashoff, former commander of the USS Benfold and author of three books, is scheduled to speak during the First General Session on Sunday, Oct. 2. Abrashoff was the most-junior officer in the Pacific Fleet when he took...
Organizations push PBM Transparency Act
July 26, 2022HME News Staff
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A letter signed by 207 organizations supports the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act, S.4293, and asks Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to bring it for a full vote in the Senate. The bill, which was introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in May, passed the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in June. “We applaud the recent efforts of the Commerce Committee to advance S. 4293 on a bipartisan...
NCPA urges FTC to block merger of Prime Therapeutics/Express Scripts, Magellan RX Management
July 19, 2022HME News Staff
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Federal Trade Commission should sue to block Prime Therapeutics LLC/Express Scripts from acquiring Magellan RX Management, says the National Community Pharmacists Association in a letter to Holly Vedova, director to the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. If the merger were to proceed, it would allow Express Scripts/Prime to steer patients even more easily to its own mail-order pharmacies for specialty drugs and potentially supply it with valuable insight into claims-level...
NCPA launches PBM resource
May 12, 2022HME News Staff
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The National Community Pharmacists Association is launching a new resource to help pharmacists and patients report possible violations of pharmacy benefit manager regulations to state insurance regulators and push them to enforce the laws on the books. “There have been great strides forward in recent years with comprehensive state PBM reforms and court victories, but patients, small-business pharmacies and taxpayers aren’t seeing all of this progress when regulators...
Consumers want to support community pharmacies, survey says
March 1, 2022HME News Staff
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Health insurance plans and their pharmacy benefit managers shouldn’t tell patients which pharmacies to use, a practice known as “patient steering,” according to 84% percent of respondents to a new national consumer survey released by the National Community Pharmacists Association.
More specifically, 78% say insurance plans and PBMs shouldn’t require patients to use pharmacies they own and they shouldn’t be allowed to require patients...
NCPA denounces FTC decision on PBMs
February 22, 2022HME News Staff
WASHINGTON – The National Community Pharmacists Association criticized the Federal Trade Commission after it deadlocked on a vote to investigate pharmacy benefit managers.
“Two members of the FTC just let the worst actors in the market off the hook. After hearing hours of testimony by community pharmacists and patients, all of whom painted the same shocking picture about PBM abuse, and not a single witness there to defend the PBM industry, it is inexplicable that two members...