(Washington, DC)—The independent pharmacy industry’s lobby has declined to answer important questions raised in a new report about the harmful effects their agenda would have on consumers and employers and is instead attacking the one proven resource available â?? pharmacy benefit managers â?? to lowering prescription drug costs, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) said today. PCMA is the national association representing pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

Earlier this week, PCMA published a new report, How the Independent Pharmacy Lobby’s Agenda Undermines Competition, Hurts Consumers, and Increases Costs, that examines the $77 billion independent pharmacy industry and highlights how the industry’s lobbying rhetoric is completely at odds with marketplace reality. As the independent pharmacy lobby gears up to petition lawmakers next week for special protections that would only increase drug costs, this new report raises a number of important questions that policymakers and others are asking and that have yet to be addressed by the independent pharmacy industry lobby, including:

· Why do independent pharmacies charge higher prices to the uninsured than to consumers with PBM-administered drug coverage?

· Why has the independent pharmacy industry lobby opposed the Medicare prescription drug benefit and sued the Administration â?? twice â?? to stop seniors from getting the drug discounts they need?

· Despite being among the top 4 percent wage earners nationally, why is the independent pharmacy industry trying to eliminate competition from mail-service pharmacies?

· Why do independent pharmacists accept cash payments from drug manufacturers to steer consumers toward more profitable drug products? How much of these cash payments are passed on to consumers?

· Why does the independent pharmacy lobby continue to push its agenda even after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has said its legislative proposals “are likely to undermine the ability of some consumers to obtain the pharmaceuticals and health insurance they need at a price they can afford?”

PBMs administer prescription drug plans for more than 200 million Americans with prescription drug coverage provided through the nation’s large employers, Taft-Hartley union plans, health insurers, state and federal-employee benefit plans, and Medicare Advantage health plans. PBMs help drive down the cost of prescription drugs for consumers and plan sponsors â?? on average by 25 percent â?? by negotiating discounts with drug manufacturers and retail pharmacies. These savings are, in turn, passed on to consumers. PBMs also provide consumers with important quality protections, such as real-time detection of potentially dangerous drug interactions; disease management; and physician and patient education.

The full report is available at PCMA’s website, www.pcmanet.org.

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The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) is the national trade association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PCMA member companies provide pharmaceutical care management services to more than 200 million Americans.

Contact Information:
Phil Blando
202-207-3614

Merritt: ‘High Profits, Strong Salaries Refute Longstanding Claims of Financial Hardship From Independent Pharmacy Lobby’

New PCMA Print Advertising Campaign Unveiled

(Washington, DC)—America’s independent pharmacy industry, which has long portrayed itself as “mom and pop” operations struggling against a tide of increasing competition in the retail pharmacy business, is in reality a thriving profession with high profit margins, top-tier salaries, and a legislative agenda that would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the nation’s prescription drug tab, according to a new report released today by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA). PCMA is the national association representing pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

” The independent pharmacy lobby continues to seek protection from competition even though they remain very profitable,” said PCMA President Mark Merritt. “With PCMA’s new report, it is more apparent than ever that independent pharmacies are thriving and reaping record profits. Providing the $77 billion dollar independent pharmacy industry with new legislative and regulatory protections would increase prescription drug costs for consumers and employers by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Independent Pharmacy Lobby’s Agenda Would Harm Consumers

PCMA released the new report, How the Independent Pharmacy Lobby’s Agenda Undermines Competition, Hurts Consumers, and Increases Costs, today at a Washington press briefing. The independent pharmacy industry lobby’s agenda is a veritable special-interest bonanza that would harm consumers and employers by forcing them to pay more for prescription drugs. Specifically, their agenda would:

· Eliminate competition from mail-service pharmacies;
· Dictate contract terms between employers and PBMs;
· Invite fraud by creating special rights for pharmacies to get paid faster than other health care providers;
· Undermine competition by mandating one-size-fits-all contracts between PBMs and pharmacies; and
· Restrict cost-saving tools like step therapy and prior authorization

Independent Pharmacy Industry Thriving with High Profit, Top-Tier Wages

Contrary to their lobby’s claims, the independent pharmacy industry is thriving. In developing the report about the independent pharmacy success story, PCMA analyzed the independent pharmacy industry’s own published data. Among the key findings contained in the new independent pharmacy report:

· Independent Pharmacy Lobby’s Agenda Would Add Billions to Nation’s Drug Spend. The independent pharmacy lobby is pushing special-interest bills nationwide that would restrict competition among retail pharmacies; limit competition from mail-service pharmacies; and create inappropriate relationships and conflicts of interest between retail pharmacies and PBMs.

· Independent Pharmacies are Flourishing. While independent pharmacy owners claim that PBMs are putting them out of business, their data show that sales and profits have soared, especially in rural areas.

· Independent Pharmacy Owners are Among the Nation’s Elite Wage-Earners. Independent pharmacy owners are among the top four percent of US wage earners. Newly minted pharmacists can expect signing bonuses running into thousands of dollars and often enjoy six-figure starting salaries.

· Independent Pharmacies Use Group Purchasing Power. The vast majority of independent pharmacies nationwide belong to independent pharmacy purchasing groups (IPGs), sophisticated organizations that give them tremendous bargaining clout with manufacturers and PBMs. Through IPGs, independent pharmacies secure market-share rebates.

· Independent Pharmacies Earn Highest Profits from Uninsured Consumers. Independent pharmacies earn their highest gross profit margins â?? a staggering 40 percent â?? off of uninsured consumers and seniors without prescription drug coverage.

In addition to this report, PCMA also released a new paper, How Pharmacy Benefit Managers Help Employers Provider Safer, More Affordable Prescription Drugs, that highlights the value that PBMs provide to employers. The paper documents the tools PBMs rely upon to lower drug costs an average of 25 percent and ties together disparate PBM cost-savings data from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, the Federal Trade Commission, and other industry and government sources.

To help raise awareness about the independent pharmacy lobby’s agenda, PCMA has also launched a new print advertising campaign. Running inside the Beltway and entitled, “Think Again,” the advertisement asks the question, ‘Think you know the independent pharmacy industry?’ and sets the record straight about the industry’s profitability and wages.

The full report and a copy of the new print advertisement are attached below.
How Pharmacy Benefit Managers Help Employers Provide Safer, More Affordable Prescription Drug Benefits (April 2005)

How the Independent Pharmacy Lobby’s Agenda Undermines Competition, Hurts Consumers, and Increases Costs (April 2005)

Think you know the independent pharmacy industry? Think again (April 2005)

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The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) is the national trade association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PCMA member companies provide pharmaceutical care management services to more than 200 million Americans.

Contact Information:
Phil Blando
202-207-3614

In response to today’s ruling by the U.S. District Court upholding Maine’s PBM fiduciary-disclosure law and in an effort to protect Maine consumers and employers from higher prescription drug costs, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) announced it will immediately appeal the case to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, Mass., the association said today. PCMA is the national association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

In addition to seeking an appeal of the U.S. District Court’s decision in PCMA v. Rowe, PCMA will also seek emergency injunctive relief to prevent enforcement of the law.

“PCMA intends an immediate and vigorous appeal of today’s ruling,” said PCMA President Mark Merritt. “If left intact, this law will give drug makers the upper hand in drug price negotiations with PBMs. As a result, Maine consumers and employers could see prescription drug costs increase by more than 10 percent, or $1.7 billion dollars, over the next decade.”

Today’s ruling conflicts with the recent findings of two other federal court judges; independent analyses from the Federal Trade Commission, Congressional Budget Office, and Government Accounting Office; and the actions of more than a dozen states in the past two years:

· U.S. District Court for District of Columbia. In December 2004, the US District Court in Washington, DC blocked Title II of the Access Rx Act of 2004 — a law with provisions very similar to the Maine law — from taking effect. In granting the Order, US District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina noted that “the evidence before the court indicates that the PBM industry is highly competitive, enhances drug safety by alerting pharmacists to dangerous drug interactions and saves consumers money by controlling drug costs.”

· Most States Rejecting PBM Fiduciary-Disclosure Legislation. In just the first three months of 2005, a number of states have already rejected PBM fiduciary and/or disclosure legislation, including Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, and New Mexico. In 2004, ten states rejected similar legislation, including California, New York, Florida, Washington State, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Kansas, Iowa, and Vermont. In addition, in 2004, South Dakota approved a modified disclosure law that does not designate PBMs as fiduciaries.

· U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In July 2004, the US Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice issued a joint report on competition throughout the health care system and made six key recommendations. In assessing the costs- benefits of PBM “transparency,” the FTC/DOJ report recommends that “states should consider the potential costs and benefits of regulating pharmacy benefit manager

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The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) is the national trade association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PCMA member companies provide pharmaceutical care management services to more than 200 million Americans.

Contact Information:
Phil Blando
202-207-3614

Trade Group Says 50-State Patchwork Would Be More Expensive, Less Efficient

Washington, DC; 04.06.05 — For Medicare to realize the full cost-savings and quality-improvement potential associated with electronic prescribing in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, Medicare should move quickly to adopt a program-wide, comprehensive system based on a uniform national standard that relies upon the most advanced technology working in the marketplace today, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) announced today. PCMA is the national association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

PCMA made these recommendations as part of comments submitted late yesterday to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on its proposed rule for Medicare electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) standards. In the commercial marketplace, PBMs have pioneered the most advanced e-prescribing infrastructure and other health-information management tools to help employers, unions, health insurers, and others to improve outcomes, promote safety, and reduce costs.

“PCMA believes that Medicare e-prescribing holds the potential to transform the health care delivery system,” said PCMA President Mark Merritt. “Regrettably, a 50-state patchwork approach would increase costs, decrease efficiency, and severely undermine the promise of e-prescribing.”

In comments submitted to CMS, PCMA focused on these key areas in the proposed rule:

PCMA believes one national uniform standard is critical to making e-prescribing work for beneficiaries as Congress intended. Both the Medicare Modernization Act and the conference report make clear Congress’ intent that both Medicare e-prescribing and the commercial market should be subject to one national, uniform standard. A uniform national standard is essential to maximizing private plans’ participation in the part D benefit and in helping to reduce regional variations in health care delivery and outcomes.
PCMA believes that duplicative and conflicting state laws and regulations will increase costs and should be pre-empted by Medicare. PCMA has serious concerns that requiring part D participants to adhere to both Medicare standards and 50 separate state rules for e-prescribing would be an administrative nightmare and undermine quality. Moreover, without Medicare preemption of state e-prescribing laws, the cost of the drug benefit could soar as plans are prevented from leveraging fully proven cost-savings tools, including formulary compliance and therapeutic interchange.
PCMA believes that Medicare should rapidly adopt a comprehensive, program-wide e-prescribing system based on the most advanced technology working in the marketplace today. PBMs are at the forefront of utilizing advanced e-prescribing systems in the commercial marketplace today. Rather than experiment with unproven technology, PCMA believes that Medicare should rely upon the most advanced system working today for consumers and purchasers throughout the health care system.

Related Links:
PCMA Comments on E-Prescribing
Board of Pharmacy State E-Prescribing Survey

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The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) is the national trade association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PCMA member companies provide pharmaceutical care management services to more than 200 million Americans.

Contact Information:
Phil Blando
202-207-3614

How Pharmacy Benefit Managers Help Employers Provide Safer, More Affordable Prescription Drug Benefits

How Pharmacy Benefit Managers Help Employers Provide Safer, More Affordable Prescription Drug Benefits

How the Independent Pharmacy Lobby�s Agenda Undermines Competition, Hurts Consumers, and Increases Costs

How Pharmacy Benefit Managers Help Employers Provide Safer, More Affordable Prescription Drug Benefits