WASHINGTON — After 15 years at the helm of the lobbying group for pharmacy benefit managers, Mark Merritt’s parting gift was a stone blue baseball cap. “PCMA,” the group’s acronym, was embroidered in red on the front, “Merritt 15-0” in white on the back.
“15 years here and we haven’t had any significant losses,” explained Merritt, the group’s current CEO.
Those on the outside question that record. PBMs, the companies that are hired to negotiate the prices of drugs, have had a tough run lately. Pharmacists and drug companies have framed them as grifters keeping drug prices high. President Trump has chided them for “dishonest double-dealing.” And a federal lawsuit accuses them of overcharging Medicare and pocketing the profits.
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Of course he has “No regrets” because he knows that the criminals that helped him fleece the American taxpayers, won’t be indicted. He know he is above the Law. Our federal regulators were unable to turn down the money this guy generated for his Industry. He was incredibly effective handling how the media covered, or didn’t the billions of extra dollars these criminals added to the Medicare Part D program. Just another corporate criminal normalized by industry funded media outlets like this one.