Have PBMs harmed patients?

See Why the FTC is looking at pharmacy benefit managers and their role in drug pricing by Kimberly Adams of Marketplace. Excerpt:

"The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, the main industry group for PBMs, strongly disputed the FTC’s report, pointing out anonymous sourcing and what the group referred to as “cherry-picked” case studies. Some current and former FTC officials concurred, along with some in academia.

“I do not believe the report has evidence showing PBMs harmed patients and plan sponsors,” said Ge Bai, a professor of accounting and health policy at Johns Hopkins.

Just because these companies are big doesn’t necessarily make them bad, she argued.

“PBMs have to be big in order to negotiate price concessions,” she said. “So I think just to focus on the size without looking at the consumer harm is a mistake.”"