FTC report on PBMs – Healthcare Economist

Final week, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) launched a report titled “Pharmacy Benefit Managers: The Powerful Middlemen Inflating Drug Costs and Squeezing Main Street Pharmacies.” Whereas I received’t get into an evaluation of the particular arguments FTC made, the report does have plenty of fascinating statistics and graphics on pharmacy profit managers (PBMs). Some highlights are beneath.

First, PBMs do way more than simply design formularies. Now they’re extremely built-in entities, with many massive PBMs being owned immediately by Health plans.

PBM measurement elevated because of a sequence of consolidations over the previous 25 years.

The market share of the three largest PBMs (CVS Caremark, Categorical Scripts (ESI), and OptumRx) elevated from 70% to 79% of the PBM market.

Specialty mail order pharmacy is rising as a share or PBM income relative to different channels.

In reality, PBM mum or dad corporations’ income comprised 22% of all US nationwide Health expenditure as of 2023.

You may learn the total report here.