I have been receiving calls at the office about the PSAO’s and the fact that they are signing contracts on your behalf THAT YOU ARE NOT HAPPY WITH.
In most cases these PSAO’s have a committee made up of store owners that review these contracts and decide whether or not the PSAO should sign.
We have a Catch 22 situation here.
If they do not sign a bad contract, then a store that services many of these customers get mad and then has to go to great lengths to sign up individually. What is accomplished in this scenario?
The Chains sign everything , but are they under the terms and conditions?
The Chains are just looking to get customers in their stores to sell them profitable items on their shelves – 15,000 square foot stores….
Then there is Caremark, one of the Big 3, that would love to just have CVS service all their clients.
In a perfect world, the PSAO’s would not sign a contract greater than AWP-15% for Brand & AWP-25% for generic. This is not a perfect world…….
Once the PSAO signs a contract on your behalf, you are obligated to service these people or be thrown out of the PBM network.
Walgreen’s dropped out of ESI a few years ago & a year later came crawling back – 8000 stores – The biggest Independent PSAO services just about 4000 stores.
So what are we doing about this……..
Senate Bill 1089 sponsored by Senator Tomlinson has the answer and every Pharmacy organization in the State is working on its passage – It includes:
Audit parameters – no return on monies for errors easily fixed, such as transposing numbers in the NPI number
MAC Pricing – Must be updated within 7 working days after a drug increase in price. MAC prices must be made readily available to us for review.
PBM Transparency – would stop spread pricing and much more that would make PBM’s less profitable and show plan sponsors where they are being “ripped off”.
We are also working with Rep. Baker in the House to write similar legislation.
The PBM lobbyists (and there are many of them) are fighting against this legislation with everything they have. We need you to be a lobbyist for Independent Pharmacy……
Bottom Line:
Please get involved politically – get to know your Representative & Senator both at your store & at home.
Visit them a couple times a year and let them know what is happening to our profession thanks to the very profitable PBM’s, all headquartered out of Pennsylvania.
I can’t emphasize this enough – these legislators have to be educated & if no one contacts them, they place our requests under the pile of paperwork on their desks.
Donate to PhilPac either by personal credit card or personal check – we attend local fund-raisers for legislators where we get a few minutes of their time & they are not cheap, but necessary – PhilPac form can be found in the Links section under PARD links.
PPA also has a Pac fund – PharmPac – getting involved with PPA would also be a plus and very informative… All Keystone members are also members of PPA as Keystone pays your dues yearly.
PARD & Keystone work very closely with PPA & as their offices are in Harrisburg, they meet with legislators almost daily and the very experienced PARD lobbyist works with them daily.
Finally:
Get involved with PARD – learn more about what we are doing on your behalf. If you interested in becoming a Board Member or Committee Member, let me know. One three hour meeting a month is not too much to ask & you will probably enjoy it and actually learn from your peers. It’s a great place to get things off your chest too!
