Reader: time for political leaders to get answers on pharmacy benefit managers

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Dear Editor:

I am writing to bring your attention to the cost of prescription drugs. Without argument, it is clear – they are too high. This is especially true for seniors who often must take more medications than the average American as the risk for chronic health conditions and other diseases increase with age.

Most patients rely on their insurance to shoulder the costs of these prescriptions necessary to maintain their quality of life. However, middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) work with insurance companies to develop and administer benefits.

PBMs too often put seniors in a bind by increasing medication costs, creating complex formularies, and implementing tiered pricing to determine what medications they can access and afford, and even limiting the choices of pharmacies they can use.

Optum Rx, one of the nation’s largest and fastest growing PBMs, is affiliated with United Health Group (UHG), which will be in the federal spotlight as CEO Andrew Witty testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on May 1. It is my hope that Senator Todd Young will also take this chance to hold UHG and its middlemen accountable and ask how they plan to lower the cost of prescriptions.

The time for PBM reform is now and our leaders can start by demanding answers.

Eric Essley
President & CEO of LeadingAge Indiana