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An alarming number of local communities are losing their pharmacies because of greed by pharmacy benefit managers. Johnstown is the latest when Westmont Rexall announced it was closing after seven decades. Recently, Friendly Pharmacy, a fixture in the Kensington area of Philadelphia for 26 years, announced it will close May 31. PBMs were created to…

Tribune-Review | Wednesday, May 8, 2024 7:00 a.m. As a practicing physician and patient, I must address the letter “PBMs support Pa. pharmacies” (April 26, TribLive) by an officer from the lobbyist-driven Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), which claims that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) save patients money. This assertion is completely misleading. Drug costs continue to rise annually,…

Pharmacies in Western Pennsylvania are closing at an alarming clip, pushed out of business by a complex, opaque and utterly broken medication reimbursement system. The state legislature, following the recommendation of Gov. Josh Shapiro, must act to bring transparency and accountability to the important, but little-known, health care middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs….

Filling a prescription is becoming harder and harder for some consumers as pharmacies are in the midst of what the industry is calling “a crisis.” Eighty pharmacies have closed in Pennsylvania since January 1st and many more closures could be coming. Legislation has been introduced designed to alleviate the problem. “A pharmacy is the most…

Reimbursement cuts that are forcing drugstores to fill many prescriptions at a loss are pushing pharmacists out of business, including a dozen that have closed in Western and Central Pennsylvania in recent months, store owners told a state Senate hearing Monday. The three big pharmacy benefit managers that dominate the wholesale drug market are forcing…

The April 2 letter in PennLive defending Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) leaves out a lot of facts about how these companies are hurting Pennsylvania families and community pharmacies. Instead of passing along savings they create, PBMs are pocketing an estimated $2.4 billion a year of Medicaid dollars. As a result, over 70 community and chain pharmacies…

Pharmacists clad in white coats packed the Capitol steps calling for reform of pharmacy benefit managers (PBM). “People may not think they’re affected by this, but I got news for you, this affects everyone in our state,” said Chris Antypas, president of Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association. PBMs are a go-between for health insurance providers and drug…

Chris Templin just wants to stay alive. He has Hemophilia B, a rare genetic blood clotting disease that can be fatal. He needs infusions three times a week, and the treatments are expensive. Templin estimates it’s costing an estimated $300,000 a month, or about $3.6 million a year, to keep him alive. Templin has health…

In his State of the Union address last week, President Biden doubled down on this commitment to decreasing drug prices by expanding the number of drugs subject to Medicare negotiations. However, Congress and his Administration have yet to address the middlemen who control these prices. Millions of Americans may be stripped of the most accessible…

So much of American health care can be summed up with drugs. We often go to the doctor less to find out what is wrong than we do to get a prescription to fix the symptoms. While the long-term goal may be figuring out the underlying cause, the short-term objective is just to make the…