Yesterday Medco offered itself up to smaller competitor Express Scripts, creating an entity with more than 50% of the PBM market. PBMs originated as specialized claims processors that supposedly were able to reduce drug costs. But in the 1990s  drug costs soared. Somehow PBMs didn’t lose employer clients, further confirming that employers are dumb about how they buy health care. Most employers didn’t understand that PBMs made much of their profits on rebates they were paid by drug companies to keep particular drugs on formulary. Almost none of that money went back to the employer. After that game ended, PBMs replaced almost all those profits by making huge margins on generics until Walmart showed that it could make a profit by charging only $4 a fill. Now it looks like extracting a bigger piece of the pie from pharmacies and charging more to employers may be the only game left for PBMs. And that’s probably the driver behind the merger.

Leave a Reply

THCB ADS




MASTHEAD


Matthew Holt
Founder & Publisher

John Irvine
Executive Editor

Jonathan Halvorson
Editor

Alex Epstein
Director of Digital Media

Munia Mitra, MD
Editor, Business of Healthcare

Laura Montini
Associate Editor

Cindy Williams
Associate Editor

Michael Millenson
Contributing Editor










About Us | Media Guide
© THCB 1995-2012
WRITE FOR US

We're looking for bloggers. Send us your posts.

If you've had a recent experience with the U.S. health care system, either for good or bad, that you want the world to know about, tell us.

Have a good health care story you think we should know about? Send story ideas and tips to tips@thehealthcareblog.com.

ADVERTISE

Want to reach a dedicated audience of healthcare insiders and industry observers? THCB reaches a monthly audience of 100,000 movers and shakers. We reach a total circulation of roughly 450,000. Find out about advertising options here.

Questions on reprints, permissions and syndication to ad_sales@thehealthcareblog.com.

THCB CLASSIFIEDS

Reach a super targeted healthcare audience with your text ad. Target physicians, health plan execs, health IT and other groups with your message.
ad_sales@thehealthcareblog.com
WORK FOR US:

Interested in the intersection of healthcare, technology and business? We're looking for talented interns to work in our San Francisco offices. Get in touch.

Wordpress guru? We're looking for a part time web-developer to help take THCB to the next level. Drop us a line.

SUPPORT:

Let us know about a glitch or a technical problem.

Report spam or abuse here.
SEND US STUFF:

THCB
650 Delancey Street
San Francisco, California 94107

Other stuff you can do:

Subscribe to our RSS feed
Get THCB via Email
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook