Villains of Health Care Series #1: PBMs

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) were designed to negotiate lower prices for prescription medications and pass those savings along to the payers (employers, patients, and health plans).  Doing this in an honest manner and respecting their fiduciary duty to these various players was not all that lucrative so the PBMs shrugged off their fiduciary duties and began taking undisclosed margins and kickbacks from both sides of the equation, negotiating mainly on their own behalf, making certain to complicate pricing arrangements as much as possible to keep all other parties in the dark.