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Middlemen Who Save $$ On Medicines — But Maybe Not For You

By Francis Ying and Julie Appleby and Stephanie Stapleton

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:

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