New PCMA Ad Campaign: 'It's the Drugstore Lobby vs. Employers'

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Pharmaceutical Care Management Association

May 07, 2012, 08:43 ET

'Wrong to Force Businesses to Pay More for Prescription Drugs'

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As drugstore lobbyists descend on Congress to demand higher payments and new restrictions on prescription drug cost cutting, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) launched a new ad campaign defending the rights of employers, unions, and government programs to reduce wasteful pharmacy spending. The ad says employers think, "it's wrong" for the drugstore lobby "to force businesses to pay more for prescription drugs."

"This agenda is promoted by local drugstores, but it raises costs for every other business in town and mostly benefits Walgreens – a $70 billion company that doesn't need the help," said PCMA President and CEO Mark Merritt.

Click here to see the new ad, 'It's the Drugstore Lobby vs. Employers.'

The drugstore lobby agenda includes:

Stopping employers from promoting home delivery of 90-day prescription drug refills.
Forcing plans to include drugstores that overcharge.
Demanding higher payments from the government and employers.

A recent poll of owners and human resource managers of small businesses with 100 or fewer employees found that:

Small businesses want access to plans that exclude expensive drugstores from their networks. 61 percent say it is a good idea to "allow employers to choose lower cost plans that exclude the most expensive drugstores from their coverage network."
Small businesses want to hold drugstores accountable. 88 percent say it is a good idea to "allow plans to audit drugstores that appear to be overcharging."
Small businesses want access to plans that encourage delivery of prescription drugs through the mail. 79 percent say it is a good idea to "allow plans to offer discounts that encourage employees to get prescriptions by mail."

PCMA represents the nation's pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which improve affordability and quality of care through the use of electronic prescribing (e-prescribing), generic alternatives, mail-service pharmacies, and other innovative tools for 216 million Americans.

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SOURCE Pharmaceutical Care Management Association