STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about a lawsuit against J&J, Express Scripts dealings, and more
Johnson & Johnson faces a consequential new class action lawsuit for allegedly overpaying its pharmacy benefit manager for its employees’ medicines.
Top of the morning to you, and a fine one it is. Clear blue skies and rays of sunshine are enveloping the Pharmalot campus, where the official mascots are busy waking the neighbors and assorted other creatures are moseying about. As for us, we are immersed in the usual routine, which starts with firing up the coffee kettle and brewing cups of stimulation. Our choice today is peppermint mocha. Please feel free to join us. And of course, we have also been scavenging for items of interest. You can see the results as you scroll down. On that note, we wish you luck on your journey today and encourage you to keep in touch. Settings are adjusted to accept postcards and telegrams. …
Johnson & Johnson faces a consequential new class action lawsuit — not in its role as a manufacturer of drugs, but as an employer and purchaser of prescription drugs for its workers, STAT explains. Ann Lewandowski, a health care policy and advocacy director at J&J, sued her company on Monday for allegedly overpaying its pharmacy benefit manager for its employees’ medicines, citing previous STAT reporting to support some of the allegations. Those overpayments, the lawsuit alleges, ultimately come out of workers’ paychecks in the form of high health insurance premiums, higher out-of-pocket drug costs, and stunted wage growth.
Express Scripts, which handles prescription drug transactions for West Virginia public employees has, in some cases, paid itself more than 100 times as much for the most expensive class of drugs than it could have paid if it had gotten them elsewhere, The Ohio Capital Journal reports, citing pricing data. The company, which is the subject of an antitrust suit in Ohio, did not dispute the data, but argued it uses its heft as a pharmacy middleman to save customers money. And both Express Scripts and the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency said that one can not just look at reimbursements for select drugs and draw conclusions about the plan’s overall performance.
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