THE three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the US have been accused of significantly marking up the prices of medications, including for heart disease, cancer and HIV.
According to a new report from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), UnitedHealth Group's Optum, CVS Health's CVS Caremark and Cigna's Express Scripts hiked up prices at their pharmacies by hundreds or thousands of per cent between 2017-2022, netting them US$7.3 billion in revenue.
"The $7.3 billion is the difference between what they are reimbursing themselves and what it is estimated to cost them to acquire the drug," an FTC spokesperson said.
Patient out-of-pocket costs for these drugs rose by 14-21% between 2017 and 2021.
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