Feds yet to address request for PBM probe
It has been more than three months since the bipartisan leaders of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee asked the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general to investigate the business practices of pharmacy benefit managers, especially “spread pricing” in state Medicaid programs.
The response from the Trump administration? Crickets.
“We are still reviewing their request and plan to follow up with their staff regarding next steps,” a spokeswoman for the inspector general said in May — and essentially repeated last week.
Her comments came just as the administration backed off its own plan to force PBMS to pass along all rebates from government-funded health plans to consumers, a move that sent the stock prices of PBMS and health insurers higher.
Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-iowa, and top Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon asked on April 8 for
a probe of “practices that may allow for inappropriate profiteering and potential anticompetitive practices in state Medicaid programs.” The duo mentioned Ohio’s situation in their letter’s second sentence.
A consultant last year found that PBMS reaped nearly $250 million in a year from managing Ohio’s prescription drugs for Medicaid recipients, an amount stemming from rates that were three to six times the industry standard. The same consultant is preparing an updated report on the impact of numerous changes the state made in an attempt to rein in PBMS.
Kasich dumps Epstein money
Following up on an item from a couple of weeks ago in which former journalist Sam Donaldson called John Kasich a “wuss” for not challenging President Donald Trump in the 2020 race ...
Kasich’s reply last week: “I didn’t say I wasn’t running. I have to see a path. I’m hiking and hiking, I don’t see the path.”
In a sign that he might still be looking for that path, within a couple of days of our inquiry last week, a spokesman said that Kasich decided to give$1,000 to an anti-human trafficking organization supported by his wife, Karen. That matches the amount of a campaign donation that Kasich received on June 4, 1999, from Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy investment counselor now accused of sexually assaulting underage girls.
Husted speaks, GOP gets cash
The Cuyahoga County Republican Party recruited a public official to help it raise money last week: Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.
The county GOP’S finance committee charged $175 a person to hear Husted talk Monday about one of the specialties of the Republican’s public sector job: workforce development.
Asked about the propriety of a public official talking about his publicly funded duties to raise political cash, Husted spokeswoman Brooke Ebersole told Reporter Randy Ludlow: “He provides these updates very frequently to all sorts of groups. Our office is always happy to be offered the opportunity to provide a report on what the administration is doing on behalf of Ohioans.”
Perot-kaptur ’92?
Overlooked in the obituaries of Texas billionaire Ross Perot last week was this Ohio-related factoid dug up by Jessica Wehrman of the Dispatch Washington bureau: The one-time independent presidential candidate wanted U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-toledo, to be his running mate.
The two were simpatico on NAFTA and allied because of their mutual hatred of the trade deal. But Kaptur’s mother was ill, and she felt obligated to take care of her. Also, she is a Democrat and felt a little hesitant to ditch her party label for the independent Perot.
Decades after their wouldbe political partnership and days after his death at the age of 89, Kaptur lauded the Texas billionaire’s kindness, talking about how he flew his personal doctor up to take a look at Kaptur’s mother.
Perot’s grandfather had been buried in what later was her congressional district.
“He was so gracious,” she said. “People have no idea how philanthropic he was … he was a great patriot.”
The two’s friendship died down when Perot’s political interests did, she said.
“I think the political world wasn’t a fit,” she said.
drowland@dispatch.com @darreldrowland