According to the Federal Trade Commission, UnitedHealth Group has been charging patients markups on lifesaving drugs.
Between 2017 and 2022, UnitedHealth Group’s Optum, Cigna’s Express Scripts and CVS Health’s CVS Caremark marked up their prices by hundreds — and in some cases, thousands — of percent, resulting in $7.3 billion in revenue above cost.
“The three major pharmacy benefit managers hiked costs for a wide range of lifesaving drugs, including medications to treat heart disease and cancer,” FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in a report.
“The Big 3 PBMs marked up numerous specialty generic drugs dispensed at their affiliated pharmacies by thousands of percent, and many others by hundreds of percent,” the report said.
An FTC spokesperson told reporters via CNBC that the $7.3 billion in revenue was “probably an underestimate.”
“The $7.3 billion is the difference between what they are reimbursing themselves and what it is estimated to cost them to acquire the drug,” they added.