To the editor: Kudos to columnist Michael Hiltzik for his revealing reporting on how every consumer is manipulated by pharmacy middlemen and the companies that own them such as CVS. They raise prices to fatten their profits while those who can least afford it pay excessively for desperately needed medications.
He explains that the pharmacy owners, hospitals, drug companies, insurers and doctor groups have all been gobbled up into monopolies that profit greatly from our pain. I pray the Federal Trade Commission really does finally address this mass ripoff. Don’t blame Biden for drug inflation. Blame the companies enjoying fat profits.
Alex Ben Block, Encino
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To the editor: Before pharmacy management companies came on the healthcare scene there were more than 50,000 independently owned pharmacies in the United States. Now, there are about 19,500.
The management companies adjudicate claims submitted by pharmacies, paying some and denying others. And, more and more often, these companies are paying the independently owned pharmacies less than their cost of the drugs that they are dispensing, driving them out of business.
If the present trend continues, customers will have no choice but chain drug stores or mail order pharmacies, largely owned by the prescription management groups.
The day of patronizing an independent pharmacy, where the pharmacist greets you by name, is vanishing.
Herbert Weinberg, Marina del Rey
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To the editor: The piece on pharmacy benefit managers describes terrible things that may happen, but not what has happened. Even worse, the columnist limits his research to Medicare Part D with no mention of Part C.
My wife and I are both covered under Medicare Part C and couldn’t be any more pleased with the cost of our prescription drugs and the quality and cost of our medical care in general. It is as good as it gets.
Medicare Part C is a perfect model for a Medicare for All plan if only one could accept the fact that private insurance may be or is more efficient than government programs.
Kevin Minihan, Los Angeles
