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Back in August Ohio released a partial report summarizing its assessment of their PBMs’ financial performance. The results sent shock waves throughout the industry. I’m not sensationalizing. Now the full report has been released. If this report doesn’t change how you manage pharmacy benefits nothing will. Here were my comments around that initial report.
Tyrone’s Commentary:
On the heels of terminating two large PBM contracts, the State Auditor of Ohio released this bombshell report detailing the financials which prompted terminating said contracts. Why do you think Chase Bank, Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway have teamed up to disrupt healthcare? Self-insured employers must first make sure all vendors and advisers interests are perfectly aligned to theirs. Second, get self-educated AND (not or) hire an expert with a proven track record whose interests too are perfectly aligned. I can assure you these qualifications makes the list of qualified candidates much smaller than you think. The bottom line – trailing public entities in how you manage pharmacy benefits is no longer sustainable.
In a nutshell, Ohio’s Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) charged the state a “spread” of more than 31 percent for generic drugs – nearly four times as much as the previously reported average spread across all drugs, according to a new report by Ohio Auditor of State Dave Yost.
An analysis conducted by Auditor Yost’s staff found PBMs collected $208 million in fees on generic Medicaid prescriptions, or 31.4 percent of the $662.7 million paid by managed care plans on generics during the one-year period April 1, 2017 through March 31, 2018.
