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Banning Spread Pricing on PBMs Alone May Have Little Impact, Study Suggests

 
• By Leslie Small

As legislation moves forward in Congress, an examination of high-utilization Part D-covered generic drugs concludes that other payers in the supply chain make almost as much money from spread pricing as PBMs do.

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• Source: Shutterstock

Although PBMs are taking increasing heat for spread pricing — or charging payers more for a drug than pharmacies are reimbursed — they aren’t the only players in the drug supply chain that engage in the practice, a new study points out. And one of the study’s authors says its findings suggest that patients may be better off if generic drugs are simply removed from insurance coverage entirely.

The study, published in JAMA Health Forum on Oct. 20, examined data associated with 45 high-utilization Medicare Part D-covered...

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