Worcester City Councilors take over prescribed drug costs

The Worcester-Municipal Consiller sent a request to a report for a report in the city of third parties that are intended to negotiate with drug producers to reduce drug costs, but that in recent years have caught fire at last because it caused the opposite effect.

“The cost is very high,” said Mayor Joseph M. Petty. “I want to see, Mr. Manager, to see if we can give our taxpayers a break, give our employees a break, give our pensioners a break.”

The order, which was formulated and submitted by Petty to consider the Council, requested that the manager of Eric D. Batista analyze the contractual agreements between the benefit managers in the city and pharmacy, known by the acronym.

The PBMs were created as a cost saving measure for employers to determine which medicines would be covered by insurance and then negotiate prices for medicines, but in recent years have been examined after patients have complained about the lack of access to life rescue drugs, delays in receiving the drug and have been directed by the procurement.

The published reports have carried the billions of dollars industry for the lack of transparency in the price criteria, against the background of the statements that, instead of lowering the costs of the drugs, the PBMs have increased the costs entirely.

In July 2024 report, the US Trade Commission found that the first three PBMs processed almost 80% of the approximately 6.6 billion recipes distributed by American pharmacies in 2023.

The mergers and purchases focused 80% of the industry in the hands of three major PBMs: CVS Caremark, owned by CVS Health; Express scripts, held by Cigna; and Optum RX from the United Health Group.

The order presented to the Council by Petty also requested that Batista’s office report on the steps that are currently used to examine the requests to ensure that the best practices are implemented to control the costs for the benefits of drugs.

Mike Kane, an associate of economic development and public policies at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Regional, spoke in support of the Order.

“This review is essential to ensure that best practices are implemented and that appropriate measures are taken to control costs and retirees of our city,” Kane said. “Instead of reducing the expenses, the PBMs have contributed more and more to increasing the costs of the prescriptions, which makes the drugs now accessible.

“In an era of reinforcement budgets, the city must ensure that it implements the best possible practices for managing the benefits costs for drugs.”

The order was unanimously approved by 10-0 by counselors.

Thu Nguyen counselor was not present during Tuesday’s session.