ABSTRACT
Some of you may wonder why the General Accounting Office (GAO) is interested in PBMs. As with a lot of issues that the GAO looks at, our interest is directly related to that of Congress. It all stemmed from a proposal made by Roy Vagelos of Merck several years ago to add prescription drug coverage to the Medicare program and have it administered by PBMs. While several members of Congress expressed interest in the possibility of adding prescription drug coverage to Medicare, they also expressed a need for more information regarding PBMs. We have heard a lot about a perceived lack of information regarding PBMs. The first report issued by the GAO a year ago focused largely on questions such as, what is the role of the PBMs, who are they, and why are drug companies buying them (1).
