PHARMACY BENEFITS MANAGER: The Business Model Explained?

By A.I. and Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP

SPONSOR: http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

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Business Model Defined

Doctors and dentists earn money by treating patients. CPAs and Attorneys have clients, and retail stores buy items low and sell them at higher prices. This is called a business model.

More formally, a business model identifies the products or services the business plans to sell, the target market, and any anticipated expenses, in order to outline how to generate a profit. Business models are important for both new and established businesses. They help companies attract investment, recruit talent, and motivate management and staff.

Businesses should regularly update their business model, or they’ll fail to anticipate trends and challenges ahead. Business models also help investors to evaluate companies that interest them and employees to understand the future of a company they may aspire to join.

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The Business Model of Pharmacy Benefits Managers

In the United States, health insurance providers often hire a third party to handle price negotiations, insurance claims, and distribution of prescription drugs. Providers that use such pharmacy benefit managers include commercial health plans, self-insured employer plans, Medicare Part D [drug] plans, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and state government employee plans. PBMs are designed to aggregate the collective buying power of en-rollees through their client health plans, enabling plan sponsors and individuals to obtain lower prices for their prescription drugs. PBMs negotiate price discounts from retail pharmacies, rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers, and mail-service pharmacies which home-deliver prescriptions without consulting face-to-face with a pharmacist.

PBMs DEFINED: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2019/01/18/on-pbms-pharmacy-benefits-management/

Pharmacy benefit management companies can make revenue in several ways.

First, they collect administrative and service fees from the original insurance plan.

Then, they can also collect rebates from the manufacturer.

Traditional PBMs do not disclose the negotiated net price of the prescription drugs, allowing them to resell drugs at a public list price (also known as a sticker price), which is higher than the net price they negotiate with the manufacturer. This practice is known as “spread pricing”. The industry argues that savings are trade secrets. Pharmacies and insurance companies are often prohibited by PBMs from discussing costs and reimbursements. This leads to lack of transparency.

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Therefore, states are often unaware of how much money they lose due to spread pricing, and the extent to which drug rebates are passed on to en-rollees of Medicare plans. In response, states like Ohio, West Virginia, and Louisiana have taken action to regulate PBMs within their Medicaid programs.

For instance, they have created new contracts that require all discounts and rebates to be reported to the states. In return, Medicaid pays PBMs a flat administrative fee.

PBM PODCAST: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2023/08/26/podcast-cvs-replaces-its-pbm/

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SPEAKING: Dr. Marcinko will be speaking and lecturing, signing and opining, teaching and preaching, storming and performing at many locations throughout the USA this year! His tour of witty and serious pontifications may be scheduled on a planned or ad-hoc basis; for public or private meetings and gatherings; formally, informally, or over lunch or dinner. All medical societies, financial advisory firms or Broker-Dealers are encouraged to submit an RFP for speaking engagements: CONTACT: Ann Miller RN MHA at MarcinkoAdvisors@outlook.com -OR- http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

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DAILY UPDATE: Retail Pharmacies Down as the Stock Market Rally Stall Out

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Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy last October, and CVS and Walgreens reported steep losses over 2024.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

STOCKS UP

  • AT&T climbed 4.58% thanks to a few big announcements during its investor day, including returning over $40 billion to shareholders via dividends and stock buybacks over the next three years.
  • Palantir popped 6.88% after the US government gave the cybersecurity darling the green light to let its cloud offerings handle classified data. It also helped that Barrons expects the company will be added to the Nasdaq 100 in 2025.
  • Speaking of Palantir, BigBear.ai soared 28.64% after the server company was touted as the next Palantir by the Economic Times.
  • Data center company Credo Technology Group skyrocketed 47.89% thanks to an impressive earnings report and a glowing fiscal forecast.

STOCKS DOWN

  • US Steel dropped 8.01% on President-elect Trump’s declaration that he will block the company’s acquisition by Nippon Steel.
  • Tesla sank 1.59% after a Delaware judge once again blocked Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package. The case will go back to court yet again, and may eventually reach the Supreme Court.
  • Intel tumbled another 6.10% two days after CEO Pat Gelsinger was fired happily decided to retire.
  • The children aren’t alright: Children’s Place crashed 24.15% after the children’s clothing retailer announced its turnaround isn’t going so well.
  • South Korean stocks took a beating after the country’s president declared martial law. The country’s largest online retailer, Coupang, sank 3.74%, steel manufacturer Posco Holdings dropped 4.32%, and Samsung tumbled 3.71%.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

Here’s where the major benchmarks ended:

  •  The S&P 500® index (SPX) rose 2.73 points (0.05%) to 6,049.88; the Dow Jones Industrial Average® ($DJI) fell 76.47 points (–0.17%) to 44,705.53; and the NASDAQ Composite® ($COMP) added 76.96 points (0.40%) to 19,480.91.
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield added three basis points to 4.22% after falling below 4.17% at one point.
  • The CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX)held steady at 13.39.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/tj8smmes

Visualize: How private equity tangled banks in a web of debt, from the Financial Times.

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