Dear beautiful supporters,
We are winning. It's a painful slow win, but it's happening. This week, I traveled to Florida to speak on behalf of our supporters for patient choice of pharmacy legislation. The House and Senate Committees passed the legislation with the support of both Democrats and Republicans!
You can help support us by joining our community or making a donation to support our advocacy.
This was my comment to the Florida Senate. You may click here to listen.
PBM stands for pharmacy benefit manager. The three largest are Optum RX, CVS Caremark, and Express Scripts. They manage pharmacy benefits for insurance companies. They've now merged with insurance companies and the mail order pharmacies that they force or steer many patients to use.
"I became an advocate after my son received a liver transplant from a 3-year-old little girl. I decided to try mail order pharmacy and found out that temperatures are not regulated.
Oklahoma students recently published a study showing 80% of medications shipped by mail are not stored at the proper temperature. As moms, we're forced to put our children's medications in 120 to 170-degree temperatures in these trucks. Oklahoma was one of the first states recently to pass regulations of temperatures.
Express Scripts threatened to sue the board, so I started my advocacy after being forced to use mail order pharmacy. I started a petition that has 219,000 supporters on Change.org to stop the forcing of mail order. We have at least 10,000 supporters here from Florida, and I am so appreciative and honored today just to be able to speak on their behalf.
I will never forget personally the day that I was told that I would have to use mail order pharmacy. I broke down in tears at the pharmacy counter after what we had experienced in the past, but I had no choice. You either use CVS mail order pharmacy or you have to pay 100% of the cost. I would beg CVS to please package his medicines correctly.
They would arrive again on a hot day in only a bag, even though they had promised to ship them correctly. As reported by NBC, I would call the FDA who said they get calls like mine in the middle of every summer and every winter. The U.S. Department of Labor said the same thing. They get these calls all the time, and although it's unethical, it's not illegal. CVS gave me the option to ship it to the local pharmacy, but it's going to be shipped the same way in a bag. They also said I could drive 260 miles one way. Keep in mind that the medication is 5 minutes away from my home. I can get it there. They're just trying to force us to their own mail order pharmacies. I found out later that they would reimburse my local pharmacy ten times less than what they reimbursed themselves.
I believe here in Florida there was a a school board that had done some research finding out that the local pharmacies were paid $450 for the same drug that CVS reimbursed themselves $6,500 for.
It's very important to me today that patients like my son have safe and affordable access. I really like what Dr. Ed Weisberg, former chief medical officer for Express Scripts, said just a couple of weeks ago. Their (PBMs) claims of "safe and affordable" were ridiculous and they are. If you look at the Better Business Bureau complaints, you'll see one-star ratings. If you look at that, and see right away, there is a pattern of delays. There's a pattern of pricing issues. It's not safe; it's not affordable.
Our children's lives and the future of pharmacy for our children rely on the survival of these pharmacies. It relies on regulation and transparency.
Please save our pharmacies and save our lives."
Thank you for your support,
Loretta Boesing, Patient Advocate
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Email: loretta@uniteforsafemeds.com