This means more mail order prescriptions on the way
eventually as almost all health plans today have one. I wonder how this affects chain pharmacies like Walgreens who are still disputing contract amounts with Express Scripts.
Blue Cross members can’t get prescriptions there so now does it all switch over to Medco?
Express Scripts to buy Medco for $29 Billion–Medco 2nd Quarter Profits Were Down 4% And the Profit Algorithms Once Again Are Hard at Work To Control Costs via Acquisition
The initial announcement of Express Scripts was announced in July of 2011. When you add in Caremark as the other large PBM that’s like a huge amount of the mail in pharma business in the US.
Walgreen Dumps Express Scripts Pharmacy Benefit Manager–Contract Dispute With Reimbursement to Retail Chain Too Low
Now let’s look at something else going on in 
the drug business with FICO selling software to companies such as PBM managers and now it gets interesting with analytics that are using mismatched data that has been spun and marketed, with FICO claiming they can predict medication adherence. How man PBMs are buying this and what will it do for access for patients? This is just one more example on how marketing today puts a wild spin on things and it goes on behind the scenes and denies due to parameters not being met, whatever they are.
FICO Analytics Press Release Marketing Credit Scoring Algorithms to Predict Medication Adherence–Update (Opinion)
One thing to keep in mind today is that with mergers and acquisitions, along comes aggregation of data for analytics and to sell for a profit and PBMs do that big time and companies are making billions selling data so again keep that thought and the acquisitions of today might look a little different to you as if Walgreens in the SEC statement in 2010 made short of $800 million selling data, just think what these two conglomerates make, it makes my head spin and wonder if selling prescriptions is merely the gateway to profits on selling data. I’m not the first one to say this and I won’t be the last. If you know math and see that Walgreens number, you can’t over look it. BD
Despite potential antitrust concerns and vocal opposition by some lawmakers and consumer groups, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions, two of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers, said Monday that federal regulators had approved their $29 billion merger.
The decision, by the Federal Trade Commission, to let the merger proceed was not unanimous, indicating conflicting views among the agency’s top regulators over whether to challenge — or impose limitations on — the combined company. After eight months of review, the F.T.C. commissioners voted 3-to-1 to close the agency’s investigation.
The acquisition of Medco by Express Scripts, based in St. Louis, creates what is now the industry’s largest player, with $116 billion in 2011 revenue. CVS Caremark, itself the product of a merger between a large drugstore chain and a benefit manager, is now the second-largest competitor with $107 billion in revenues.
Pharmacy benefit managers, known as P.B.M.’s, manage prescription drug plans for employers and insurers. They serve as middlemen between the drug companies and the payers.
Two groups, which represent community pharmacists and chain drugstores that have strenuously objected to the combination, filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block the merger. The National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, which see the combination as problematic for pharmacies, said they planned to pursue their litigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/business/ftc-approves-merger-of-express-scripts-and-medco.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimeshealth&seid=auto
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