by Yves Smith
Yves here. On the one hand, if you read the business press, you encounter enough discussion of the role of pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to work out that they are very large and profitable and wield enormous influence in the pharmaceutical business…but it’a all a bit fuzzy how they do that.
Kaiser Health News, now rebranded as KFF Health News, has a new article on PBMs, with the news hook that the Senate just held hearings on PBMs before a vote on PBM legislation….with the description of what PBMs do, exactly, and what the legislation entails peculiarly hazy.
Matt Stoller, in his post The Red Wedding for Rural Pharmacies, gave the 50,000 foot description of how PBMs work and how they abuse their monopoly position. A key section: …