Part 2 of a 2-part conversation with state and national leaders in the battle against Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and their predatory practices which are harming patients and pharmacies throughout the country, especially in rural areas such as West Virginia! Panelists Include: Douglas Hoey, CEO of National Community Pharmacists Association Antonio Ciacca, CEO of 46brooklyn Research and APhA - American Pharmacists Association Joni Cover ,VP of Strategic Initiatives at National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA) Lynne Fruth, President and Chairman of Fruth Pharmacy Heidi Romero, Pharmacist and Advocate at Griffith & Feil Pharmacy in Kenova, WV
Resources for more education: PBM Accountability Project pbmaccountability.org How PBMs Make Money: PBM Practices & Profits https://info.rxsafe.com/blog/pbms-make-money-infographic
Pharmacy Benefit Manager: Market Landscape and Strategic Imperatives https://www.hirc.com/system/files/public/MM_PBM%20Landscape_2022.pdf
Getting to the Root of High Prescription Drug Prices July 10, 2017 https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2017/jul/getting-root-high-prescription-drug-prices
Pharmacy Times White Paper: DIR Fees Simply Explained October 25, 2017 https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/white-paper-dir-fees-simply-explained
Pharmacy Benefit Managers and Their Role in Drug Spending April 22, 2019 https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/explainer/2019/apr/pharmacy-benefit-managers-and-their-role-drug-spending
How Have Diabetes Costs and Outcomes Changed Over Time in the US? November 15, 2019 https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/diabetes-care-u-s-changed-time/#health-spending
From Benefit Cards to Billions in Profits: The Evolution of the Modern PBM March 17, 2020 https://www.withmehealth.com/newsroom/from-benefit-cards-to-billions-in-profits-the-evolution-of-the-modern-pbm
How State Medicaid Programs Are Managing Prescription Drug Costs Pharmacy Benefit Administration 2019 April 28,2020 https://www.kff.org/report-section/how-state-medicaid-programs-are-managing-prescription-drug-costs-pharmacy-benefit-administration/
Drug Channels: August 11, 2020 Five Top Drugmakers Reveal List vs. Net Price Gaps (Plus: The Trouble With Insulin Prices) https://www.drugchannels.net/2020/08/five-top-drugmakers-reveal-list-vs-net.html
Promarket: February 19,2021 How the FTC Protected the Market Power of the Pharmacy Benefit Managers https://www.promarket.org/2021/02/19/ftc-market-power-pharmacy-benefit-managers/
NCPA: June 3, 2021 It's not a Typo: 91,500% Increase in Fees Heaped on Pharmacies https://ncpa.org/newsroom/news-releases/2021/06/03/its-not-typo-91500-increase-fees-heaped-pharmacies
Pharmaceutical Spending Up 77% Over 10 Years, Yet Out-of-Pocket Prescription Drug Costs Have Fallen in Same Period February 28, 2022 https://www.valuepenguin.com/pharmaceutical-spending-study#:~:text=According%20to%20data%20from%20the,to%20%2452%20billion%20in%202015
Viatris' biosimilar insulin isn't as cheap as you thought. https://www.axios.com/2021/11/17/the-new-generic-insulin-isnt-as-cheap-as-you-thought
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.