AXIOS December 6, 2021
American businesses spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on prescription drugs, and the bills keep getting bigger. But some of the companies promising to help rein in those costs prevent employers from looking under the hood.
Why it matters: Documents provided to Axios reveal a new layer of secrecy within the maze of American drug pricing — one in which firms that manage drug coverage for hundreds of employers, representing millions of workers, obscure the details of their work and make it difficult to figure out whether they’re actually providing a good deal.
The big picture: Americans spent $370 billion on retail prescription drugs in 2019, and employers shouldered about $166 billion of that, according to federal data.
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