Complex language and fee structures make pharmacy benefit managers tricky to deal withand the results can often be hazardous to an employers bottom line.

Pharmacists and other consumer advocates have often been skeptical of PBMs real value.

In the shadowy world of pharmacy benefits management, exploiting workers compensation reimbursement rates is one of the many ways PBMs ensure their own massive profits while ultimately driving up drug costs for employers and consumers.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association just launched an advertising campaign that would make Mad Mens Don Draper and other spin doctors proud. Its an age-old strategy: if you cant win the fight, dodge the question and change the subject.

Pharmacy benefits managers, third party administrators of prescription drug programs, are entering increasingly into a tricky game that sounds eerily familiar to anyone who was ever bullied by an older brother or sister.

Benefits managers should take a careful look at the common practices of their pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) to understand the PBMs use of manufacturer rebates. While it may sound counter-intuitive, the use of rebates is actually an important factor in rising drug costs.