Last month, we shared that Iowa Auditor of State Rob Sand found in an audit of the state’s Medicaid program that one PBM had plucked an extra $100 million from taxpayers’ pockets between 2019 and 2021 through clawbacks from pharmacies. That misuse of tax dollars unnecessarily harmed patients and pharmacies, all through opaque measures attempting to hide just how much the PBM was taking home. Unfortunately for the PBMs, that shady accounting is still getting press.
The report emphasizes that PBMs denied access to key financial records, preventing a complete evaluation of compliance. Sand said, “... PBMs may be using the same end-run as they use in other states to skirt a ban on pricing that exploits taxpayers: burying the banned practice in unavailable and convoluted data across an entire year.”
Over a month later, the story hasn’t gone away. Just yesterday, Stat News published a deep dive on the situation. Clearly, the media and the public see just how bad the grifting has gotten.
Read the article here.
