PBM study critical of role played by benefits managers

A new study delivers surprising results which may shock employers who rely on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to hold spending on prescription drugs down. That's not exactly what's happening. Experts at the University of Michigan concluded that PBMs working with the university often steered customers towards more expensive brand name drugs and accepted payments from drug companies to promote their products. As a result, the University has moved to a single PBM and is tightly monitoring drug spending. The school has saved $8.6 million as a result.

On a slightly more upbeat note, the Harvard report authored by Lucian Leape, which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association yesterday, notes that e-prescribing is having real success in reducing the number of prescription errors. Leape notes prescription errors are down 81 percent at hospitals using e-prescribing technology. Leape's conclusions, however, are based on data from earlier studies, not new data as USA Today reported yesterday.

For more on the PBM study:
- see this story from the Detroit Free Press

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