This story was first published May 21, 2018 and has been updated.
Guess who’s back grabbing headlines? Pharmacy benefit managers — those companies that serve as middlemen in the prescription drug pipeline. Plans to reduce the cost of medicines often target so-called PBMs as primary culprits behind the nation’s out-of-control drug prices.
But consumers often don’t notice or understand PBMs and how they factor into determining costs at the pharmacy counter. This , brought out from our vault, details the emergence of these multimillion-dollar corporations and the impact they have on medication costs and patients’ access to treatments.
For more information on drug pricing issues, check out this chart and these videos:
KHN also offers other videos examining hot topics such as , , and how the health law could be disassembled through the .
