UnitedHealth, the company that employed slain CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly overcharged some cancer patients by more than 1,000% for their medications
pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the US namely OptumRx of UnitedHealth, Express Scripts and CVS Caremark collectively profited by approximately $7.3 billion through significant price markups on essential medications between the year 2017 and the year 2022, reported Fortune.
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According to Fortune, the shocking report actually highlights that these PBMs marked up prices on numerous specialty generic drugs by thousands of percent while some drugs saw increases of over 1,000% compared to their wholesale costs.
The recent findings eventually indicate that this price gouging disproportionately affects patients requiring lifesaving medications for conditions such as cancer and HIV, asserted Fortune. Numerous eminent critics eventually put forward an argument that the opaque pricing practices of PBMs contribute to the overall inefficiencies and high costs of the American healthcare system, which is already notorious for its lack of transparency and high per capita spending without corresponding improvements in patient outcomes.
In response to the findings of FTC, UnitedHealth’s OptumRx defended its practices while claiming it has helped patients save money on medications, noted Fortune. Meanwhile, at the same time, CVS Caremark criticized the report for allegedly cherry picking data to support an ‘anti-PBM’
