On Tuesday, President Trump signed what is, to me anyway, one of the most meaningful executive orders of his presidency to date. The president signed an order aimed at pharmacy benefit managers, which I have previously written about here.
The executive order will allow for standardizing Medicare payments for prescription drugs wherever the patient gets care, pretty much eliminating “specialty pharmacies.” There is nothing special about these pharmacies, but they allow for a monopoly of drugs to be provided only by pharmacy benefit manager-owned pharmacies.
These “specialty pharmacies” gain exclusive access and charge a significant amount for medications that would otherwise be cheaper at their local independent pharmacy. I have patients who have PPO/HMO insurances and require drugs such as Tacrolimus, Sirolimus, or even Mycophenolate. These are…
