The Employer's Guide Blog for Overseeing PBMs

The Definition of Oversee: to watch over and direct (an undertaking, a group of workers, etc.) in order to ensure a satisfactory outcome or performance.

Ohio’s Attorney General Calls for PBMs to Operate as Fiduciaries

Ohio’s Attorney General, Dave Yost, is continuing to wage war on non-fiduciary PBMs or pharmacy benefit managers. You might remember him from an earlier blog post when he served as Ohio’s State Auditor.

Last summer, in his previous role as state auditor, Yost learned PBMs earned nearly $225 million through spread pricing between April 2017 and March 2018 while operating in Ohio Medicaid. As a result, the state canceled all PBM contracts in Medicaid that used spread pricing.

AG Yost just announced a four-part proposal and called for quick action from the state’s legislature to shine a bright light on PBM contracts and cut down on hidden cash flows. Yost’s proposal calls for:

  • Drug purchases in the state to be conducted under a master PBM contract that is administered by a single contact point
  • Ohio’s Auditor of State to have full power to review all PBM contracts, purchases and payments
  • PBMs to operate as fiduciaries, uh-oh!
  • The state to prohibit nondisclosure agreements on drug pricing.

So, what is the difference between a fiduciary PBM and one that isn’t? Watch the video below to learn for yourself.

Tyrone Squires, MBA, CPBS

I am the proud founder and managing director of TransparentRx, a fiduciary-model PBM based in Las Vegas, Nevada. We help health plan sponsors reduce pharmacy spend, by as much as 50%, without cutting benefits or shifting costs to employees.

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