Little-Known Middlemen Save Money On Medicines — But Maybe Not For You

Pharmacy benefit managers — companies that are often unnoticed and even less understood by most consumers — hold an important place in the prescription drug-pricing pipeline. In this video, Kaiser Health News details the emergence of these multimillion-dollar corporations and the impact they have on medication costs and patients’ access to these treatments.

For more information on drug pricing issues, check out this chart and these videos:

This story can be republished for free (details).

Tracking Who Makes Money On A Brand-Name Drug

Sounds Like A Good Idea? Regulating Drug Prices

The Orphan Drug Machine

KHN also offers other videos examining hot topics such as selling insurance across state lines, high-risk insurance pools, Medicare’s observation care status and how the health law could be disassembled through the congressional budget reconciliation process.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

<h1>Little-Known Middlemen Save Money On Medicines — But Maybe Not For You</h1>
<div>	Francis Ying and Julie Appleby and Stephanie Stapleton
		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2017-08-02T02:00:30-07:00">
			August 2, 2017		</time>
		</div>
Pharmacy benefit managers — companies that are often unnoticed and even less understood by most consumers — hold an important place in the prescription drug-pricing pipeline. In this video, Kaiser Health News details the emergence of these multimillion-dollar corporations and the impact they have on medication costs and patients’ access to these treatments.For more information on drug pricing issues, check out this chart and these videos:This story can be republished for free (<a href="https://californiahealthline.org/syndication">details</a>).<a href="http://kffhealthnews.org/news/tracking-who-makes-money-on-a-brand-name-drug/">Tracking Who Makes Money On A Brand-Name Drug</a><a href="http://kffhealthnews.org/news/sounds-like-a-good-idea-regulating-drug-prices/">Sounds Like A Good Idea? Regulating Drug Prices</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R98eZrvbGq4">The Orphan Drug Machine</a>KHN also offers other videos examining hot topics such as <a href="http://kffhealthnews.org/news/sounds-like-a-good-idea-selling-insurance-across-state-lines/">selling insurance across state lines</a>, <a href="http://kffhealthnews.org/news/sounds-like-a-good-idea-high-risk-pools/">high-risk insurance pools</a>, <a href="http://kffhealthnews.org/news/hospital-surprise-medicares-observation-care/">Medicare’s observation care status</a> and how the health law could be disassembled through the <a href="http://kffhealthnews.org/news/a-guide-to-budget-reconciliation-the-byzantine-rules-for-disassembling-the-health-law/">congressional budget reconciliation process</a>.This story was produced by <a href="http://kffhealthnews.org/">Kaiser Health News</a>, an editorially independent program of the <a href="https://www.kff.org/">Kaiser Family Foundation</a>.<ul><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/little-known-middlemen-save-money-on-medicines-but-maybe-not-for-you/?share=facebook">				Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)				Facebook			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/little-known-middlemen-save-money-on-medicines-but-maybe-not-for-you/?share=linkedin">				Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)				LinkedIn			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/little-known-middlemen-save-money-on-medicines-but-maybe-not-for-you/?share=x">				Click to share on X (Opens in new window)				X			</a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Little-Known%20Middlemen%20Save%20Money%20On%20Medicines%20%E2%80%94%20But%20Maybe%20Not%20For%20You&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcaliforniahealthline.org%2FMjQzMTcy&share=email">				Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)				Email			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/little-known-middlemen-save-money-on-medicines-but-maybe-not-for-you/#print?share=print">				Click to print (Opens in new window)				Print			</a></li><li>				<a href="https://californiahealthline.org/news/little-known-middlemen-save-money-on-medicines-but-maybe-not-for-you/view/republish/">					Republish This Story				</a>			</li></ul><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.<a href="https://californiahealthline.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.

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