PBM Consolidation: Better Pricing or Just Less Competition?: The growth of specialty pharmaceuticals, including biologics, is forcing payers and employers to look at cost-saving strategies for managing those drugs. How will they do it if only one large PBM rules the specialty pharmacy network?

Abstract

While the ramifications of Express Scripts' planned takeover of Medco are being debated, the use of pharmacy benefit managers is being questioned as cost savings decline and transparency issues hang high. And payers and employers still can't get rid of a "bad taste in the mouth." So what does a mega PBM hope to accomplish?