PUTTFla

Florida Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency - exposing abuses of the #Rxmiddlemen #pbms in #rxpricing for patients, payers and pharmacy providers

[PUTTFla @puttfla]

putt was talking about this a YEAR ago!

[Save Independent Pharmacy @BrandiChane]

It’s time to “Audit TRICARE”!!
https://t.co/pLlkmX0gOY
Taxpayers fund TRICARE and we want answers! @TomCottonAR @SenThomTillis @RepAuchincloss @RepHarshbarger @realDonaldTrump @DonaldJTrumpJr @mcuban

[Save Independent Pharmacy @BrandiChane]

I agree @electcharles it’s time to blow up the system! @LoisKolkhorst just take a look at Arkansas and Tennessee. Start with the PBMs! @TomOliverson @TruthRX @WhartonForTexas @ShelleyLuther @TXpharmAssn @APRxNews

[Forest Park Pharmacy @ForestParkPharm]

TRICARE got robbed in broad daylight and nobody at the Pentagon can be bothered to look up from their coffee.

Sen. Warren put the receipts on the table last week (5.22.26 hearing) and what came out of that room should be on the front page of every paper in the country.

According to The Lever / Fed. News Net., Express Scripts' own pharmacy charges the DOD an average of $484 EXTRA on every generic prescription compared to what independent pharmacies get reimbursed. On MILLIONS of scripts. Every year. Do the math and you start to see the size of the hole that's being drilled into the defense health budget.

Here's the trick they're running:

Express Scripts is the PBM that runs the TRICARE pharmacy network. They've held that contract since 2009. Cigna bought them in 2018. The same company that decides what every pharmacy gets paid… also owns its own mail-order pharmacy that competes in the same network. So they set the price, they pay the bill, and the check lands in their own pocket. Pentagon → Express Scripts → Express Scripts. Rigged.

Real example. Ezetimibe (generic Zetia, cholesterol med):

— Independent pharmacy fills the script: reimbursed $0. Not a typo. Zero. — Express Scripts' OWN mail-order pharmacy fills the exact same script: pays itself $1,000.

Same pill. $1,000 difference. Taxpayer funded.

The consequence is exactly what you'd expect: ~13,000 pharmacies have walked away from the TRICARE network since 2022. That's nearly 1 in 6 independent pharmacies in the entire country. Military families and veterans are watching their local pharmacy options collapse because Express Scripts offered terms so bad nobody could afford to stay.

When Sen. Warren asked Assistant Secretary Stephen Bass about the cost, his answer was basically "I'm not aware." Nine million TRICARE beneficiaries, billions of dollars, and the guy whose desk it sits on hasn't bothered to check the price. He'd notice real fast if it was his own credit card.

And in case anyone thinks this is just bad management — there's an active whistleblower lawsuit alleging BILLIONS in fraud against Express Scripts and Accredo. The federal government has paused payments to other vendors for far, far less.

So here's the message that needs to land on Secretary @RobertKennedyJr's desk:

Cancel the payments. The $4.3B TRICARE contract is up for revision annually until 2029. There is a lever. Pull it.

Demand a real audit. DOD has refused to check pricing since the 2021 contract. Warren got a commitment on 5.22.26 — now make it happen.

Criminal charges. If the whistleblower allegations hold up, this isn't a billing dispute. It's looting a military health program.

And @NickShirley — you exposed $9 billion in Medicaid daycare fraud in Minnesota and got the feds to freeze payments statewide off ONE investigation. 134M+ views. This is the same playbook, bigger target, bigger stakes — 9 million military families and vets, tens of billions a year, and a single address worth driving to: 1 Express Way, St. Louis, MO 63121. Go expose this.

People should be losing their minds over this.

[Drug Store News @DrugStoreNews]

Pharmacies are facing a major financial crunch. 📉 High operational expenses and rising costs are squeezing profit margins across the industry.

Read the full report on DSN 👇
https://t.co/IpnnTJbBrr

#PharmacyNews #RetailHealth #Business

[KP, Pharm.D. @kpharmd12]

PBMs. PBMs. PBMs.

[Donald Trump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr]

Getting CVS out of the monopoly business is good for patients, independent pharmacies and innovation! God bless Tennessee!!!

https://t.co/oArsM8WSYI

[PUTT @TruthRX]

When Roger Marshall pointed to community pharmacists in the crowd and asked about auditing TRICARE, it wasn’t just a moment... it was a message. Our military families, and the pharmacists who serve them, deserve nothing less than a system that works for patients - not middlemen. #AuditTRICARE #PBMReform

[HealthCareDenied @CareDenied]

"[PBMs] are the Darth Vader of the pharmaceutical industry." They're supposed to lower drug costs; instead, they're responsible for raising them.

[Darrel Rowland @darreldrowland]

Here's a big one:
The pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) for CVS overcharged more than $600 million in just four years of coverage for federal employees, a scathing, just-released audit by an inspector general shows
https://t.co/humNtS29CJ

[Bob @Connor_Clark4]

What exactly are our tax dollars going to if TRICARE can’t cover the cost to the pharmacy?

Oh right… that money is going to @ExpressScripts

Thank you @SenTomCotton @timkaine for the legislation to stop fortune 15 companies from stealing from independent pharmacies

[PUTTFla @puttfla]

@tomdresch @JoeCarloLaw huh?

[Dutch Rojas @DutchRojas]

A GoodRx coupon does not lower drug prices.
It arbitrages the gap between two fake numbers and takes a cut.

The company went public at $12.7 billion.

Its entire business model depends on the system staying exactly as broken as it is.
That is not a bug.
That is the product.

[Welcome to Costco, I love you! @BrawndoDrinker]

@sterlingkoonce I know a family owned chain of 60+ years that just closed because of PBMs. People don’t understand that it’s not that pharmacies aren’t making enough, it’s that they’re losing big $ on most rx’s. Congress doesn’t care bc PBM lobbyists 💰💰💰

[PUTTFla @puttfla]

@websterbarnaby How is this going to prevent pbarmacy closures in Florida?

[Steven Phillips, MD @StevePhillipsMD]

I spoke to a retired MD a few days ago. He said,
"The state of medicine is becoming more dismal daily."

As the old school MD's who actually cared about their patients are getting older, they're needing medical care themselves. And finding that the field they once knew is gone.

[hogsgetslaughtered @hogsslaughtered]

It would be beautiful to see a massive class action lawsuit against PBMs where pharmacies were forced to close b/c of @CVSHealth behavior. I would reopen my pharmacy with the settlement.

[Angry Dad @angrydadwi]

As we near the two-year anniversary of our son Cole’s death, his asthma medicine rose from about $66 to over $500. We strongly urge Wisconsin legislators to pass Cole’s Act this session. #BreathingIsNotOptional
#ColesAct #PBMReform #truth @PharmacyPodcast @WI4Patients

[KP, Pharm.D. @kpharmd12]

Hey @SERSofOhio, can anyone there tell us what you’re getting billed for an Ozempic claim from @ExpressScripts ?

Your member had a $100 copay, and @ExpressScripts was “generous”enough to pay $800.

Wholesale cost is now over $1,000- so this patient will have to search around to every pharmacy in the tri-county area to find someone dumb enough to want to lose over $100 per claim.

Meanwhile, @ExpressScripts is billing you @SERSofOhio probably somewhere north of $1,500 per claim and pocketing the difference of what they pay the pharmacy.

You’re getting ripped off.

We aren’t, because we aren’t filling it.

[Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond @Okla_OAG]

I have secured a settlement of more than $5 million with CVS Caremark to resolve allegations that the Pharmacy Benefit Manager paid Oklahoma pharmacies less than what the medications actually cost. My office is protecting your access to the prescriptions you need and the pharmacists you trust. https://t.co/xY22tNVXI8