
A Prescription for Better Care - rsuttongee
https://medium.com/@tjparker/a-prescription-for-better-care-7facc9f4068e#.37dximunv
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zeroxfe
The other side of the story, from the comments:

"Express Scripts repeatedly warned PillPack that it was violating three
standards, according to Henry: it labeled itself as a “retail pharmacy” in its
contract when it is in fact a “mail-order pharmacy”; it shipped medications to
a state where it was not licensed to do so; and operated without a license
from URAC (formerly known as the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission),
a nonprofit that helps promote health care quality by accrediting various
medical care organizations."

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salimmadjd
For PBM's (they control your RX benefits for insurance companies) to also be a
pharmacy is a huge conflict of interest. How it does not fall under antitrust
laws is a surprise.

That being said, PillPack seem to be very small and was only supplying 1 out
25000 prescription fulfilled by Express Scripts [1] I also think PillPack
didn't want to label itself an "online pharmacy" for branding reasons, since
"online pharmacies" are usually though of as places where you buy viagras,
etc. which is what express script is arguing [1]

[1] [https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemlee/pillpack-vs-
express-s...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemlee/pillpack-vs-express-
scripts#.asL8OBRgm)

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twoodfin
The lack of clarity over exactly why Express Scripts is "blocking" PillPack
makes me suspect there's more to this story.

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adzm
PBMs recently seem to be getting dirtier. I would hope there are enough angry
people to effect change after this debacle goes down.

