This means more mail order prescriptions on the way
eventually as almost all health plans today have one. I wonder how this affects chain pharmacies like Walgreens who are still disputing contract amounts with Express Scripts.
Blue Cross members can’t get prescriptions there so now does it all switch over to Medco?
Express Scripts to buy Medco for $29 Billion–Medco 2nd Quarter Profits Were Down 4% And the Profit Algorithms Once Again Are Hard at Work To Control Costs via Acquisition
The initial announcement of Express Scripts was announced in July of 2011. When you add in Caremark as the other large PBM that’s like a huge amount of the mail in pharma business in the US.
Walgreen Dumps Express Scripts Pharmacy Benefit Manager–Contract Dispute With Reimbursement to Retail Chain Too Low
Now let’s look at something else going on in 
the drug business with FICO selling software to companies such as PBM managers and now it gets interesting with analytics that are using mismatched data that has been spun and marketed, with FICO claiming they can predict medication adherence. How man PBMs are buying this and what will it do for access for patients? This is just one more example on how marketing today puts a wild spin on things and it goes on behind the scenes and denies due to parameters not being met, whatever they are.
FICO Analytics Press Release Marketing Credit Scoring Algorithms to Predict Medication Adherence–Update (Opinion)
One thing to keep in mind today is that with mergers and acquisitions, along comes aggregation of data for analytics and to sell for a profit and PBMs do that big time and companies are making billions selling data so again keep that thought and the acquisitions of today might look a little different to you as if Walgreens in the SEC statement in 2010 made short of $800 million selling data, just think what these two conglomerates make, it makes my head spin and wonder if selling prescriptions is merely the gateway to profits on selling data. I’m not the first one to say this and I won’t be the last. If you know math and see that Walgreens number, you can’t over look it. BD
Despite potential antitrust concerns and vocal opposition by some lawmakers and consumer groups, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions, two of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers, said Monday that federal regulators had approved their $29 billion merger.
The decision, by the Federal Trade Commission, to let the merger proceed was not unanimous, indicating conflicting views among the agency’s top regulators over whether to challenge — or impose limitations on — the combined company. After eight months of review, the F.T.C. commissioners voted 3-to-1 to close the agency’s investigation.
The acquisition of Medco by Express Scripts, based in St. Louis, creates what is now the industry’s largest player, with $116 billion in 2011 revenue. CVS Caremark, itself the product of a merger between a large drugstore chain and a benefit manager, is now the second-largest competitor with $107 billion in revenues.
Pharmacy benefit managers, known as P.B.M.’s, manage prescription drug plans for employers and insurers. They serve as middlemen between the drug companies and the payers.
Two groups, which represent community pharmacists and chain drugstores that have strenuously objected to the combination, filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block the merger. The National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, which see the combination as problematic for pharmacies, said they planned to pursue their litigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/business/ftc-approves-merger-of-express-scripts-and-medco.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimeshealth&seid=auto
was over-diagnosed when the x-ray was blown up to further investigate. That lead to a biopsy which was also messed up and if she would have gone for treatment for this tiny miniscule mass they found with radiation, she may not be here today at age 87 and this was about 3 years ago when all this occurred. 
s at all, but, it was good to have case history and see almost the exact same thing as what set off whistles and bells 3 years prior and again we stopped there once more and opted out for surgery. She’s still here today and again I can’t emphasize enough that each case is its own and we were and are lucky but I also understand that this is just her case and everyone needs to get all the information they can and make their own decisions. BD 
don’t update frequently enough too. You just never know when the algos are going to bite. 
done some work in this area with projecting several different outcomes so they can move quickly in whatever direction they need. It is what it is today with intelligence and formulas. One health insurance company United recently hired the former US Assistant Attorney General from Minneapolis as a general counsel so that somewhat signals an area of preparedness on the part of big business here. 
public interest. I know it’s sure slowed down a lot with consumers I talk to. 
very active in all of them and in the southeast won the contract, Human filed a protest and got it back. So the next move it appears was to focus on the western US and again with hiring the former US Assistant Attorney General from Minnesota I guess they must have covered all the legal ends as you can read the link below to see where United filed suit against the government over the Tri-Care contracts. 
insurers are involved? Good questions to ask as now the data for use is caught in the middle, as are doctors and patients. 
this business get paid. I say it’s not really rocket science in essence but rather a bit of psychology involved with this as well as you “play to the crowd” to increase readership. I see many folks out there who don’t get this and use it more so as just “bragging rights” and readers lose interest with those folks quickly as I see it. Sure there’s some of that to where it is appropriate for announcements, etc. but we see those who do it day in and day out and really don’t get “social” and they end up falling by the wayside much of the time.
Math–This Could be a Subject for Michael Moore to Explore and Document In a Movie
Screenings Too–Killer Algorithms Part 12–Medical Billing Codes Style
Assessing Consumer Credit Scores–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 21 With Flawed Data
awareness and how we and our government moves forward with this reality, it remains to be seen if we can scoot around the big white elephant in the living room that nobody can see, touch or talk to <grin> but it roars. Richard Cordray has his work cut out for him and that is an understatement. 