Pharmacy Benefits Management companies (PBMs)

In another noteworthy development, Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan said that Express Scripts is removing Pfizer drugs from its preferred formulary. The pharmacy benefits manager refused to comment on the development, but the signs suggest the report is credible. According to the report authored by Ryan, Express Scripts will give preference to generics over four drugs made by Pfizer, including the cholesterol drug Lipitor, blood pressure medicine Norvasc, ED treatment Viagra and …

Pharmacy benefits manager Caremark RX said it has agreed to pay a $137.5 million settlement to the Department of Justice in a whistle-blower case involving rebates paid to AdvancePCS two years ago. Caremark bought AdvancePCS nearly two years ago and said that it had set aside reserves to pay the forthcoming claim. Three former AdvancePCS employees filed the lawsuit in 2002 under the False Claims Act, charging that the company characterized "rebates," which were payments from …

> Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt says 40,000 hospital rooms have been identified nationwide as available for Katrina victims; 1,000 beds are available in New Orleans. Story

> HCA evacuated Tulane Medical Center with apparently no federal government help or coordination. …

One of the "Big 3" PBMs, Express Scripts, said that it has extended its alliance with IT outsourcing firm EDS through 2010. The IT services giant, which has been trying to extend its healthcare business away from dependence on a few major Blues plans in recent years, provides Express Scripts with various IT services,
including mainframe and midrange hosting, communications networking and Web
hosting. Release

> Despite the health IT boom, transaction giant NDCHealth reports somewhat disappointing results for the year. Release

> HIT: HHS officials take a dose of their own medicine as the agency announces plans to consolidate and update some IT systems. Story

> Eight states currently require hospitals to report …

Aetna numbers please Wall Street
Good numbers from Aetna gave big name health plans a lift yesterday, as investors decided the good news was all the evidence they needed to jump back on board. Health plan stocks were up, with Aetna rising 5 percent. Things are equally upbeat in the PBM sector, where good numbers from Express Scripts this week have prompted a run of good old fashioned exuberance on the part of traders. Story

> PBM Medco says its quarterly profit is up 8 percent and that revenue beat expectations. Story

> Hospital software vendor Eclipsys almost got into the black last quarter; almost all of its loss was a pay-off for the outgoing CEO. Story

> Harvard's Jeremy Nobel argues health …

> The Indian government says reports of new HIV infections have fallen dramatically. Story

> PBM Express Scripts declares a 2-for-1 stock split. Story

> In Illinois, lawmakers agree to a $500,000 cap in malpractice cases. …

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 …

The TEPR show in Salt Lake City continued Tuesday. One of the most interesting tracks was one about ePrescribing -- a graveyard for several vendors in the late 1990s. Several speakers told of their optimism that ePrescribing was finally going to get off the ground as a stepping stone to the EMR for smaller practices. Danny Sands, of ZixCorp said that in the last year nearly 3,000 doctors had signed up for the health plan sponsored ePrescribing program in Massachusetts. …