Episode #4: The Revolt of the Pharmacists Part 2 with Rep. Jake Auchincloss

The Congressman has a bill, the Pharmacists Fight Back Act, that would reform the pharmacy benefit managers who are crushing independent pharmacists.

Welcome to the podcast Organized Money. You can listen to today’s episode on pharmacy benefit managers on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In Part 1 of our series on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), we heard about how pharmacists are trying to push back against the monopolistic and harmful practices of PBMs. Today, we hear from another avenger who is taking the battle against PBMs to his workplace on Capitol Hill.

Representative Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Pharmacists Fight Back Act, the most comprehensive PBM reform ever introduced at the federal level. He tells David and Matt that you've got to de-link the money that a PBM earns from the price of a drug or the volume of drugs that are sold. And he's not willing to settle for less. 

It’s exciting to see the work being done on PBMs, from activism at the pharmacist level, to a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against PBMs for jacking up the price of insulin, to the Congressional legislation that could get a vote in the lame-duck session this winter. These two episodes try to capture the state of play, and explain the maddeningly complex market for pharmaceutical transactions.

Listen via Apple:

Or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for listening, and let us know how we’re doing in the comments or by responding directly to this email.

-Matt and Dave

(image via Weiss & Paarz)