 In our last post, we briefly talked about Pharmacy Benefit Managers (or PBMs). We mentioned that prescription drug discount providers like Good Rx partner with traditional PBMs to bring you prescription discounts. Like many of you, we thought this was great for Americans until we started to dig a little deeper and noticed, for ourselves, the predatory pricing practices of these traditional PBMs. Let’s dive a little further into what this exactly means.
At the heart of the pharma industry, lies the PBM. PBMs are third-party administrators contracted by health plans, employers, unions, government entities and other organizations to handle their prescription drug benefits. Originally, PBMs existed solely to process drug claims collecting a small transaction fee to process these claims. As time passed, these “middlemen” began to create more costs from consumers through hidden fees. What started off as a good service at its core morphed into large corporation intent on pursuing profits at the expense of quality patient care. Today, these traditional PBMs are making record profits with 3 of them controlling 80% of the prescription drug market. While traditional PBMs’, like Express Scripts, increased its profits by 500% since 2013. Meanwhile, prescription drug prices jumped 1,100% from 1987 to 2014 leaving 1 out of 3 Americans not filling their prescription medications due to cost. How are these traditional PBMs generating record breaking profits? These PBMs use hidden fees like CoPay Clawbacks, DIR FEES, Spread Pricing and Formulary Exclusions to maximize their earnings. These fees, amongst others, remain hidden from the public, and we do not realize the negative effects until we see the price for our medications increase. In seeing how these predatory pricing practices of traditional PBMs have put millions of American lives at risk, we wanted to do something different. This is why Scriptly Rx only works with transparent PBMs.This simply means that we work solely with PBM organizations that do not boost profits by attaching hidden fees to the medications you buy. At Scriptly Rx, our commitment to providing prescription medication discounts without any hidden fees is what makes us different. THIS is our solution to ending the rising cost of prescription medications here in the U.S. See how much we can save you by clicking here or learn more about our commitment to drug pricing transparency here. If you have any comments, please share them with us! We would love to hear your experiences, thoughts and concerns about this topic.
0 Comments
 2019 was quite the year! People were kicking off bottle caps, Game of Thrones came to an end and baby Yoda became the cutest baby any of us had ever seen; however, one of the most important events of 2019 came without any critical acclaim. I know what you’re asking yourself right now, “What could have possibly happened in 2019 that was more important than Baby Yoda?” How about the fact that 2019 marked the 14th consecutive year that drug prices rose faster than inflation.
Despite public outrage and congressional actions, drug prices continue to rise at astonishing rates. CBS News reports that the prices for prescription medications is increasing at a rate 5 times faster than inflation. Perpetual prescription medication price hikes are a danger to the financial, physical and mental well-being of millions of Americans, and have resulted in 1 out of 3 patients skipping out on their prescription medications due to costs. With a growing number of medication discount companies, you would think this trend would be in decline, but it’s not. Prescription discount companies like Good Rx partner with traditional Pharmacy Benefit Managers (or PBMs) to provide consumers with these discounts. It looks good on the surface, but upon closer examination, the opposite is true. These traditional PBM partners, who top out the Fortune 500, have been seeing profit increases of 500% since 2013; couple that with the fact that millions of Americans are struggling to afford their prescription medications- it’s clear that affordability isn’t their true intention. Stopping these predatory pricing practices is the Scriptly Rx mission. Scriptly Rx is the first tech platform committed to only working with transparent PBM partners. This simply means that we only work with PBM organizations that do not boost profits by attaching hidden fees to the medications you buy. At Scriptly Rx, our commitment to providing prescription medication discounts without any hidden fees is what makes us different. This is our solution to ending the rising cost of prescription medications here in the U.S. You can see how much we can save you by clicking here or if you would like to learn more about our commitment to drug pricing transparency, click here. So, as 2020 comes to a start let’s say goodbye to the bad of 2019: goodbye to predatory pricing practices for prescription medications, goodbye to kicking off bottle caps, goodbye to bad endings and goodbye to baby Yoda. Well, maybe we can keep baby Yoda. If you have any comments, please share them with us! We would love to hear your experiences, thoughts and concerns about this topic. |
AuthorDanny is founder of Scriptly Rx and is passionate about making medications affordable for everyone in the U.S. ArchivesCategories
All
|
RSS Feed