Pharmacy Benefit Management Services For Employers

This Just In…

Two new pharmacy benefit management companies have decided to enter the market, promising to facilitate greater drug price transparency: EmsanaRx and the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company.

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) work with insurance companies, pharmacies, and manufacturers to negotiate the lowest drug costs for their members. Drug Channels Institute estimates that in 2020 about 77 percent of all prescription claims ran through the top three PBMs — CVS Health, the Express Scripts business of Cigna, and the OptumRx business of UnitedHealth Group.

EmsanaRx is a nonprofit coalition of almost 40 companies planning to offer pharmacy benefit management services to employers. EnsanaRx, which includes retailers such as Walmart and Costco, is the PBM unit of the Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH) coalition. Emsana Health plans to serve as an “innovation studio” which will develop new products and solutions with input from PBGH’s employer members.

The goal of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company is to sell generic drugs at a transparent, fixed rate, and to unite manufacturing, distribution, and pharmacy services under one roof. The PBM plans to be running by 2023, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.