Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency

PUTT Blog

PUTT's Letter to Judge Richard Leon re: Blocking the CVS-Aetna Merger:

Dear Judge Leon,

My name is Teresa Dickinson, and I am an independent pharmacy owner in Phoenix, AZ. I am also the president of Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency (PUTT), a coalition of more than 1,200 independent and community pharmacies across the U.S. I am writing on behalf of my organization and small business pharmacy owners everywhere to express our full opposition to the CVS-Aetna merger. We are greatly encouraged to know you are carefully considering the merger of these two excessively large corporations that together control a disproportionate share of the healthcare marketplace.

Sir, you mentioned feeling as though you are “in the dark” with regard to the merger. We promise you are, as are most Americans about the true nature of the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) industry...

PBMs In the News

Pharmacy Middlemen Manipulating the System
By Todd Brown, Executive Director,
Massachusetts Independent Pharmacy Association
Originally published in CommonWealth Magazine, 12/13/18

A RECENT FEDERAL LAW allows pharmacists to inform patients when the price of their medication is less than the copayment they would pay using their insurance. This is helpful to some patients using certain low-cost medication. But there are much bigger savings to be realized by limiting payments to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) who have gone unregulated and taken advantage of that fact.

Unfortunately, the current system lacks transparency and accountability, allowing for a conflict of interest that results in PBMs reaping excess profits at the expense of all of us – employers, those covered by insurance plans in the private market, and taxpayers for publicly funded insurance programs.

Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency (PUTT) is a non-profit advocacy organization founded by independent pharmacists and pharmacy owners devoted to exposing the truth about the anti-competitive tactics of pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) - drug benefits plan providers whose unregulated, secretive practices drive up prescription costs and annually waste hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.