Lankford Calls Out Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) for Bankrupting Independent Pharmacies

[@carlosgarcia-jz3dq]

all this senate posturing will result in NOTHING. I have owned an independent pharmacy for 10 years now and can tell you there is no dealing with scumbag PBMs. The patient asks me If I take their insurance and I always tell them the same thing. I don't take your insurance because you insurance doesn't pay me anything. They always pay cash ($4-10 out of pocket for 90% of generics) just to NOT have to deal with the hassle. Insurance is for catastrophic costs like, hurricance, car accidents, cancer, heart attacks, Period. It does not save you money on a $2 generic. Just pay cash and avoid large corporate chain pharmacies that push you towards the insurance they themselves own (cvscaremark, walgreens boot alliance). Go to mom and pop and pay cash, and cut out the fat, and if you get cancer, then use you insurance at a chain. Also don't get railroaded by big pharma into unecessary brand names drugs.

[@Douglass10]

I’m in pharmacy school and I plan on owning my own pharmacy. What’s some advice you can give me to help in this journey?

[@carlosgarcia-jz3dq]

@@Douglass10 My greatest piece of advice is to be an problem solver. Look for what the public wants and get it for them. DO NOT follow the old business models of doing things, unless your trying to get worked to death and payed garbage. Do things differently and position yourself carefully (very low overhead) so you can be in the right place when the good deals come through. Your going to need a heavy does of courage and faith too, business is no place for the timid, they belong to their corporate chain masters. There is almost no way of knowing what pharmacy is going to do next, so keep your debt close to zero so you can survive the hard times.

[@MassiveTrackHunter]

This is what congress should be doing. Nice to see.

[@sharmatime]

Pharmacy Benefits managers rule !!! They charge fees that put their competition out of business. Their CEO is like a russian oligarch. This senator is smart and i believe with the big money PBMs have this all may be forgotten on the house side. Let's see.

[@justkate2529]

Add my name to the list of consumers. I worked in a private Pharmacy for 8 years. I had access to anything in the warehouse and could order it for the patient who comes in and can't find it in the store. Do you get that kind of service in CVS or Walgreens? Absolutely not.

[@cryingdemocrats1460]

This should have never happened in the first place. Never !

[@annkerce5520]

CVS Caremark is trying to do this with my medication now. They kicked everyone off Humira at once (hoping you’d switch to a drug that CVS is manufacturing). My new medication requires an infusion; the infusion is delayed because CVS Caremark requires it to be ordered through CVS Specialty even though the infusion center is a specialty pharmacy themselves. So my infusion is delayed, the infusion center doesn’t get paid, I may or may not get sick and CVS profits from an issue they created.

[@JuliaHennigan-r1m]

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