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Tag: PBMs


Lea Wolsoncroft

Specialty Providers

NCPA fly-in turns up heat on PBM reform

April 24, 2024HME News Staff

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of community pharmacists from 40 states and the District of Columbia visited more than 250 congressional offices to press for PBM reforms during the National Community Pharmacists Association’s Congressional Pharmacy Fly-In April 17-18.   Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., offered attendees insights into what’s happening with PBM reform and how community pharmacists could best press policymakers for progress during their meetings on Capitol Hill.  “Low...

National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), PBMs


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Specialty Providers

Survey: Independent pharmacies worried about ‘DIR hangover’

June 7, 2023HME News Staff

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Seventy percent of independent community pharmacy owners/managers are concerned about upcoming cash flow challenges resulting from changes to federal policy effective Jan. 1, 2024, according to a new survey released by the National Community Pharmacists Association.  The NCPA asked independent pharmacy owners/managers for insight relating to the “DIR hangover” – what it calls the period starting Jan. 1, 2024, when bills for pharmacy direct and indirect...

Independent Pharmacy, National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), PBMs


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Voters wary of PBMs, NCPA poll finds

May 5, 2023HME News Staff

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The majority of voters know very little or nothing about pharmacy benefit managers, the largest three of which control 80% of all prescriptions in the U.S., according to a new national poll conducted by Morning Consult and released by the National Community Pharmacists Association. Eighty percent are concerned that PBMs steer patients to pharmacies their own or control to maximize their own profit, and 78% are concerned that PBMS often require patients to use their...

National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), PBMs


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Doug Hoey

Also Noted

NCPA applauds PBM companion bill

April 5, 2023HME News Staff

WASHINGTON – The National Community Pharmacists Association is cheering the bipartisan Drug Price Transparency in Medicaid Act (S. 1038), introduced March 29 by Sens. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., which would prevent pharmacy benefit managers from using spread pricing in Medicaid managed care programs. The bill is companion legislation to H.R. 1613, introduced March 16 by Reps. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, Rick Allen, R-Ga., Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., Elise...

National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), PBMs


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AMA recommends oversight of TPAs

November 16, 2022HME News Staff

HONOLULU – The American Medical Association decided at its interim meeting here to recommend that third-party administrators of specialty pharmacy benefits be included in state and federal oversight efforts of prescription drug middlemen. Regulation of pharmacy benefit managers is on the rise in response to concerns that they can have a detrimental impact on the ability of patients to access affordable prescription drugs and, for specialty pharmacy benefits, TPAs provide many of the same services,...

American Medical Association (AMA), PBMs, third-party administrators


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NCPA announces keynote speakers

August 16, 2022HME News Staff

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The National Community Pharmacists Association has announced the keynote speakers for its 2022 Annual Convention, set for Oct. 1-4 in Kansas City, Mo. The theme for this year’s convention is “Team Up! Where Teamwork Makes It All Work.” Mike Abrashoff, former commander of the USS Benfold and author of three books, is scheduled to speak during the First General Session on Sunday, Oct. 2. Abrashoff was the most-junior officer in the Pacific Fleet when he took...

Community Pharmacy, National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), PBMs


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Organizations push PBM Transparency Act

July 26, 2022HME News Staff

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A letter signed by 207 organizations supports the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act, S.4293, and asks Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to bring it for a full vote in the Senate. The bill, which was introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in May, passed the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in June. “We applaud the recent efforts of the Commerce Committee to advance S. 4293 on a bipartisan...

PBMs, Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs)


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Doug Hoey

Also Noted

NCPA urges FTC to block merger of Prime Therapeutics/Express Scripts, Magellan RX Management

July 19, 2022HME News Staff

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Federal Trade Commission should sue to block Prime Therapeutics LLC/Express Scripts from acquiring Magellan RX Management, says the National Community Pharmacists Association in a letter to Holly Vedova, director to the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. If the merger were to proceed, it would allow Express Scripts/Prime to steer patients even more easily to its own mail-order pharmacies for specialty drugs and potentially supply it with valuable insight into claims-level...

Express Scripts, Magellan RX, National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), PBMs


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NCPA launches PBM resource

May 12, 2022HME News Staff

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The National Community Pharmacists Association is launching a new resource to help pharmacists and patients report possible violations of pharmacy benefit manager regulations to state insurance regulators and push them to enforce the laws on the books. “There have been great strides forward in recent years with comprehensive state PBM reforms and court victories, but patients, small-business pharmacies and taxpayers aren’t seeing all of this progress when regulators...

National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), PBMs


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B. Douglas Hoey

Specialty Providers

Consumers want to support community pharmacies, survey says 

March 1, 2022HME News Staff

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Health insurance plans and their pharmacy benefit managers shouldn’t tell patients which pharmacies to use, a practice known as “patient steering,” according to 84% percent of respondents to a new national consumer survey released by the National Community Pharmacists Association.  More specifically, 78% say insurance plans and PBMs shouldn’t require patients to use pharmacies they own and they shouldn’t be allowed to require patients...

National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), patient steering, PBMs


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