Will PBMs pay for past tactics, misdeeds?
After overcoming a communications snafu, the agency that provides health coverage for
But a key question remains: Will those PBMs ever pay a price for possible illegalities over the past several years?
After six months of investigating, state Medicaid Director
"Our work is not done," she said. "I knew it would be extraordinarily complex."
But Corcoran said she is neither clear about the investigation's next step, nor whether the problem can be resolved.
"We can't comment on an ongoing investigation," said
'Clawbacks' saturate Medicaid
A key focus of the twin probes is the practice of "clawbacks." That's when PBMs "claw back" money from a pharmacy on a prescription that was filled weeks or even months earlier.
The PBMs say they merely are carrying out provisions of "effective rate" contracts to which pharmacies or their representatives had agreed. Pharmacists say that the near monopoly of PBMs – the three biggest control 80% of the business – result in take-it-or-leave-it contracts that heavily favor the middlemen in the drug chain.
Corcoran said her agency has discovered that controversial contracts allowing clawbacks "are pervasive through the
Because those clawbacks take place after Medicaid has closed the books on a drug transaction,millions of dollars that went to PBMs are left unaccounted for by the agency, she told the legislature's
That shortcoming means that Medicaid drug spending data that
Questionable PBM tactics
Medicaid's discovery of widespread clawbacks comes despite the fact that the practice supposedly is illegal in
The PBMs also may be violating an
The question: What exactly violates the law, and what slips through a loophole in the law discovered by the Fortune 15 companies that run the PBMs?
Last July, The Dispatch detailed how the little-known tactic of clawbacks was taking place from coast to coast, helping to drive up prices and hurting pharmacies. At the time, Corcoran said
Corcoran also said she wasn't sure the state had authority to probe the practice, which, in theory, is illegal in
Corcoran announced the investigation in late December, followed by a sweeping information request of the privately owned managed care companies hired by the state to run Medicaid on a daily basis.
However, a few weeks later she cautioned that the Medicaid probe might not be able to get to the bottom of the impact of clawbacks because of their complexity.
"As we understand right now, the effective rate contracts tend to be executed at national levels across multiple lines of business. So what we're not sure is how that impacts the specific Medicaid line of business," she said in early February.
Now, the director says her department will attempt to obtain non-Medicaid contracts in an attempt to unravel the PBMs' dealings.
"We're going to keep pursuing it, and if the day comes when we put up the white flag, we'll tell you."
Trump: 'Such courage'
Last week the
Former President
He also said: "They know that a country cannot survive without free and fair elections (and strong borders!)."
Kasich: Letting 'crazies' take control
Former
"You know, it brings up one important thing for all people who are interested in common sense and politics. If you leave the field and you let the crazies, you let the people who are really extreme take control, then these are the kind of things you get.
"And it works on both sides, both the Democratic and
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Capitol Insider
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