Rep. Sykes comments on State Auditor's report on Pharmacy Benefit Managers
State Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Akron) today responded to the Ohio Department of Medicaid’s decision to fire the state’s pharmacy middlemen after reading an advance copy of Auditor Dave Yost’s report on the deceptive healthcare pricing scheme that cost Ohio taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Yost reported his findings to the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee (JMOC) earlier today.
“Medicaid’s decision to end contracts with price-gouging pharmacy benefit managers is a great step in the right direction,” said Sykes. “The Auditor’s report confirmed our fears that taxpayers were being misled. We cannot afford to stop moving forward on this issue. We must require transparency and be in constant communication with managed care plans, pharmacies and Medicaid to ensure that we do not get back into a situation where local pharmacies are closing and families cannot afford life-saving prescription medications.”
Yost’s report noted that Northeast Ohio had one of the highest number of pharmacy closures in the state. His recommendations were to utilize periodic compliance audits of Pharmacy Benefit Manager contracts with managed-care plans, obtain financial information to document transactions including the financial terms between contracts and strengthen internal control.
“While the report provided much needed information, it also left us with many unanswered questions, like ‘where else in the system are we losing track of taxpayer money in undisclosed private contracts?’,” Sykes added.
In 2011, Ohio began utilizing a prescription drug Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) funding model, allowing managed care plans and Medicaid to hire a private entity to conduct business. The state said it will continue using the rigged system of prescription pricing through Jan. 1, until it switches to a pass-through pricing model when Gov. John Kasich’s term expires.
Sykes, who serves as the House Minority Whip and Ranking Member of JMOC represents Ohio’s 34th House District, which includes Akron and parts of Cuyahoga Falls and Bath Township.