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06/18/2018

'Cost-cutting' Middlemen Reap Millions Via Drug Pricing, Data Show

A company representing Ohioans on Medicaid has wrongly received millions in taxpayer money

A middleman company hired to keep the state's prescription-drug prices in check for Ohioans on Medicaid is receiving millions in taxpayer money meant to provide medications for the poor and disabled.

Records of transactions provided to The Columbus Dispatch from 40 pharmacies across Ohio show that CVS Caremark routinely billed the state for drugs at a far higher amount than it paid pharmacies to fill the prescriptions. The state-sanctioned practice, known as "spread pricing," allows the middlemen, called pharmacy benefit managers, to keep the difference on medications used to treat health concerns ranging from mental illness to osteoporosis.

CVS Caremark received more than $1.6 million for managing the payment for prescriptions filled by 40 pharmacies in 2017, according to a Dispatch analysis of drug transactions covered by taxpayer-funded Medicaid. The analysis shows that CVS Caremark received roughly 12 percent more from the state than it paid the pharmacies for the drugs.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Columbus Dispatch.

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