Specialty Focus 9/24/24: Cyberattacks plague health industry + FTC sues PBMs

September 24, 2024 | Volume XIII | Issue 39

FTC sues PBMs over insulin prices

Healthcare Dive reports:

The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers in the country for anticompetitive business practices that artificially inflated the price of life-saving insulin drugs.

The agency’s administrative complaint alleges CVS’ Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx steered patients toward higher priced insulin in order to bring in larger rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers.

As a result, patients who weren’t eligible for the lower discounted price faced higher costs, the FTC alleges. Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx together control about 80% of U.S. prescriptions.

Cyberattacks plague health industry; critics call Feds’ response feeble and fractured

Darius Tahir

Central Oregon Pathology Consultants has been in business for nearly 60 years, offering molecular testing and other diagnostic services east of the Cascade Range.

Beginning last winter, it operated for months without being paid, surviving on cash on hand, practice manager Julie Tracewell said. The practice is caught up in the aftermath of one of the most significant digital attacks in American history: the February hack of payments manager Change Healthcare.

COPC recently learned Change has started processing some of the outstanding claims, which numbered roughly 20,000 as of July, but Tracewell doesn’t know which ones, she said. The patient payment portal remains down, meaning customers are unable to settle their accounts.

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Football players report they believe they have CTE for study

CBS News

A third of former football players who played between 1960 and 2020 say they believe they have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to a new study. Dr. Rachel Grashow, director of epidemiological research initiatives with the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, joins CBS News with top takeaways from her research.

Watch the video HERE.

Last Word

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