Consumers in Maryland are facing rapidly rising prices at the pharmacy counter, but drug makers’ prices have roughly kept pace with inflation over the last few years. What gives? It turns out that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), a very small number of largely unregulated companies that administer the drug plans of more than 230 million […]
Center Maryland: Lawmakers in Annapolis Should Demand Greater Transparency from PBMs
If you’ve never heard of pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), that’s the way they like it. While they administer drug plans for more than 230 million Americans, PBMs thrive on secrecy and a lack of transparency. Yet PBMs’ shady business practices deeply impact the lives of Marylanders by pushing up drug prices and limiting access to […]
Rigidity in Privacy, Transparency and Security
There are persisting frictions among the public and policymakers regarding three privacy orientations: those who rank privacy above security, those who rank transparency of information above privacy, and those who rank security above privacy. These tribal orientations cannot be localized into “no go” neighborhoods, so we cannot “opt out” from the consequences of each orientation. The […]
The FCC’s Failure to Communicate
In a recent article at The Daily Caller, Josh Peterson relays the surprising data that The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is one of the most secretive agencies in the Obama administration. During a House appropriations subcommittee hearing, Rep. Mario Diaz Balart pointed out that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests were rejected far more than […]
CNBC BLOG — Pociask Calls for Increased Industry Transparency
Cost Transparency Is The New Black: Research Group A number of businesses have made significant profits by leveraging a razor & blade business model, introduced and perfected by Gillette. The name derives from the marketing practice of selling the permanent platform (razors) at or below cost and the consumable complement to the platform (blades) at […]
