Iowa House sends bill regulating pharmacy benefit managers to Gov. Kim Reynolds • Iowa Capital Dispatch Pharmacists and supporters said the bill will help rural pharmacies stay in business, but opponents say it could lead to higher drug costs.

Iowa lege passes a bill that would require PBMs to use one reimbursement list, pay pharmacies a $10.68 per-script dispensing feel. By Robin Opsahl.
iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/05/12/i...

Bill regulating pharmacy benefit managers passes Iowa Senate • Iowa Capital Dispatch The Iowa Senate passed the measure Monday which supporters said will help rural pharmacies in the state stay in business.

Iowa passes laws intended to limit the powers of big pharmacy middlemen to use arbitrary pricing and to steer patients to affiliated pharmacies. By Robin Opsahl of the Ohio Capital Dispatch.
iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/04/28/b...

Businesses say Trump tariffs will raise prices and decrease demand, Cleveland Fed survey shows Businesses are worried about passing tariff consequences on to consumers.

Even before President Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of tariffs on April 2, three-fourths of businesses surveyed by the Cleveland Fed said they would have to raise prices in response. Some said they already were. Via @martyschladen.bsky.social.
www.crainscleveland.com/politics-pol...

Ohio Medicaid got rid of big middlemen, paid pharmacies more and saved $140 million, report says • Ohio Capital Journal The Ohio Department of Medicaid department in 2022 gave powerful prescription drug middlemen the boot and created a new system. The result: Fees paid to pharmacies were boosted more than 1,200% while ...

When Ohio took control of its Medicaid drug benefits program from conflicted intermediaries, they were able to pay pharmacy providers more and still save up to $140 million.

When you trade conflicts for transparency, you win big.

@martyschladen.bsky.social

Migrants in Ohio, Michigan and elsewhere scramble as Trump changes the rules • Ohio Capital Journal Thousands of migrants to Ohio and and other states found themselves in a dangerous state of limbo last week as their permission to be here was suddenly revoked. Court challenges are being raised, but ...

From @martyschladen.bsky.social @ohiocapitaljournal.com - how Trump is revoking legal status from immigrants WHO ARE PAYING TAXES in order to be able to deport them. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/04/14/m...

As Trump tries to fire them, antitrust officials continue to investigate the medical sector • Ohio Capital Journal President Trump is trying to fire two members of the Federal Trade Commission. But on Monday night they said their work to root out anticompetitive practices by health care companies continues.

As Trump tries to fire them, antitrust officials continue to investigate the medical sector. @martyschladen.bsky.social w/ @ohiocapitaljournal.com reports ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/04/02/a...

Ohio pharmacy closures lead to fears of medicine deserts, especially in rural areas • Ohio Capital Journal The number of retail pharmacies in Ohio last year dropped below 2,000, and it’s worsening fears that especially in low-income rural areas, people will find it even harder to get medicine, vaccines, an...

PBM spread pricing is sold as a risk mitigation strategy for plan sponsors.

In practice, it is almost always used a mechanism to increase financial risk for plan sponsors.

Few know better than @martyschladen.bsky.social 👇

More than 50 Trump protests planned in Ohio this weekend, more than 1,000 across the United States.

20 years of taxes - what could be more American? - Ohio Immigrant Alliance “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Immigrants know this intrinsically. President Trump’s immigration policy is pulling the rug out from under people who are currently document...

I had a "radical" idea. What if we made the immigration system work like US Americans think it does? 😳

Reporting by @martyschladen.bsky.social + research from @celindalake.bsky.social

ohioimmigrant.org/2025/03/07/2... #OhioIsHome

The way people think immigration works and the way it really does • Ohio Capital Journal Experts say many questions American have about immigration are based on misconceptions about how the immigration system currently works in the United States. They say the reality instead is an antiqua...

"What’s more American than working for 20 years + paying taxes?” @celindalake.bsky.social

NEW @martyschladen.bsky.social @ohiocapitaljournal.com -- what if we had an immigration system that works the way people think it does?

It would be a game-changer. 📖 👀
ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/03/05/t...

The way people think immigration works and the way it really does • Ohio Capital Journal Experts say many questions American have about immigration are based on misconceptions about how the immigration system currently works in the United States. They say the reality instead is an antiqua...

If the immigration system just worked the way people think it does, we'd all be a lot better off, experts say.
ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/03/05/t...

An alarming trend: Ohio pharmacy closures spike, openings lag • Ohio Capital Journal Ohio's pharmacy closures have spiked in recent years, and the stores been closing in the communities that can least afford to lose them, according to a new data tool released by the Ohio Board of Phar...

Since 2015:

📈 The population of Ohio increased 2.2%.

📈 Nationally, estimates show the number of retail pharmacy prescriptions increased 11.4%.

📉 The number of community pharmacies in Ohio decreased 15.8%.

You get what you pay for.

@martyschladen.bsky.social

21 WFMJ 's Kaitlyn McCarthy digs into JobsOhio. Asks why way more incentives go to exploding Columbus than stagnating Youngstown. Again begs the question: Is JO giving billions in what used to be public money to corporations to do what they were already going to?
www.wfmj.com/story/524385...

Pressure builds on prescription drug middlemen as the companies see stocks and profits rise • Ohio Capital Journal A wide group of plaintiffs in a national insulin pricing lawsuit are seeking to add a group of shadowy companies set up by health conglomerates as they argue that two layers of prescription drug middl...

“The lawsuits against the companies — CVS Health, United Health Group and Cigna-Express Scripts — accuse them of excluding cheaper forms of insulin from the formularies in pursuit of ever higher payments from drugmakers.” @martyschladen.bsky.social @ohiocapitaljournal.com

Analyzing JobsOhio: Is It a Secret Monopoly Funded by Ohio's Public Liquor Franchise? Quickly and easily listen to Common Sense Ohio for free!

Had a great discussion on the Common Sense Ohio podcast last week. Forget politics. Let's take a skeptical look at what officials are doing what used to be our money, and whether we're getting what they say we are.
player.captivate.fm/episode/7cc7...

Thousands of DHS agents shift to deportation instead of drugs, weapons and human trafficking Redeploying Homeland Security Investigations agents is part of a broader Trump effort. But some fear many serious transnational crimes will go unprobed.

People want Trump to deport criminals... so he told the people at Homeland Security who are investigating drug dealers, terrorists, and human traffickers to focus on deporting the undocumented instead. Seems to me people should know.
www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

Council on Foreign Relations fellow and Georgetown professor Charles Kupchan just now: "J.D. Vance's speech (in Germany) was in some ways bone-chilling."
Trump doesn't have a strategy on Ukraine, just an impulse. "There's no hymn sheet."

Antitrust group, Ohioans issue call to 'break up big medicine' • Ohio Capital Journal Their message may come as zero surprise to the vast majority of Americans. But on Wednesday, advocates, experts and practitioners said the nation’s health care system is badly broken and dramatic meas...

Everybody knows the American medical system if broken. Now there's a call for a big, big fix.
ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/02/20/a...

American history through another lens • Michigan Advance Many are terrified to take a new look at our culture’s stories through another’s eyes. Just look at all the fake frenzy over “DEI” and the many, many attempts to hide the glaring fact that dominant, w...

American history through another lens

Commentary from @martyschladen.bsky.social

michiganadvance.com/2025/02/19/a...

An alarming trend: Ohio pharmacy closures spike, openings lag Ohio’s pharmacy closures have spiked in recent years, and the stores have been closing in the communities that can least afford to lose them, according to a new data tool released by the Ohio Board of...

Ohio’s pharmacy closures have spiked in recent years, and the stores have closed in the communities that can least afford to lose them, according to a new data tool from the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. Via @martyschladen.bsky.social of @ohiocapitaljournal.com.
www.crainscleveland.com/health-care/...

Unions file suit against drug middlemen, insulin makers on behalf of thousands, Ohio, elsewhere • Ohio Capital Journal Unions that provide health benefits to nearly a half-million workers — including many in Ohio — have filed nearly identical lawsuits against the biggest insulin makers and against the pharmacy middlem...

"By whatever name, the inflated list prices and resulting Manufacturer Payments are a quid pro quo for inclusion and favorable placement on the PBMs’ formularies.”
@martyschladen.bsky.social

President Blames D.E.I. and Biden for Crash Under Trump’s Watch President Trump’s remarks, suggesting without evidence that diversity in hiring and other Biden administration policies somehow caused the disaster, reflected his instinct to immediately frame major e...

Why did people die in a tragic mid-air collision over the Potomac? DEI, of course. Duh!
Expect much more of this nonsense.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/30/u...

Number of Britons who think Brexit was right decision hits new low, new YouGov poll shows — The Independent On the five-year anniversary of Britain’s EU exit, new YouGov polling lays bare damning public sentiment on the decision

YouGov
Just 3 in 10 Britons (30%) say that it was right for the UK to vote to leave the EU
v
55% who say it was wrong….the lowest proportion of the public saying that Britain was right to vote to leave since the pollster began asking this question after the referendum

apple.news/AyI9jhc2eQaK...

Ohio AG and 17 others question protections for immigrants from dangerous home countries • Ohio Capital Journal Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and 17 other Republican attorneys general are questioning the temporary protected status for immigrants from 17 distressed countries.

OH AG Yost said it's safe for some with temporary protected status to return to their home countries. He didn't name any.

Ohio AG and 17 others question protections for immigrants from dangerous home countries ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/01/27/o...

Amid federal uncertainty, advocates and officials highlight state-level antitrust fights • Ohio Capital Journal It's unclear whether Donald Trump will continue the Biden administration's focus on antitrust enforcement when he again becomes president Monday. But advocates and state officials say that regardless ...

This is a hugely important issue, and it seems to be gathering momentum.
ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/01/17/a...

How a Duty To Spend Wisely on Worker Benefits Could Loosen PBMs’ Grip on Drug Prices - KFF Health News As criticism of pharmacy benefit managers heats up, fear of lawsuits is driving some big employers to drop the “Big Three” PBMs — or force them to change.

How a duty to spend wisely on worker benefits could loosen PBMs’ grip on drug prices @mcuban.bsky.social @costplusdrugs.com @kffhealthnews.bsky.social kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

The facts are, the ACA saved millions with pre-existing conditions and set standards for care.

But now, more than a decade later, with what we now know, it’s time to take the insurance companies out of the mix.
The subsidies they get are enormous. We don’t need them as middlemen.

Regulator accuses drug middlemen of wild price hikes, possibly steering business to themselves • Ohio Capital Journal The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday released an interim report saying that powerful drug middlemen marked up drugs for cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other serious maladies far over the goin...

ICYMI: Pharmacy benefit managers really not looking good when it comes expensive cancer, HIV drugs, the Federal Trade Commission says in a report issued Tuesday.

Regulator accuses drug middlemen of wild price hikes, possibly steering business to themselves ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/01/15/r...

Ohio Gov. DeWine supports repeal of remaining scandal-ridden FirstEnergy legislation • Ohio Capital Journal Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine supports repealing a remaining aspect of corrupt legislation that forces ratepayers to spend hundreds of millions per year on an out-of-state and unprofitable coal plant.

Ohio Gov. DeWine supports repeal of remaining scandal-ridden FirstEnergy legislation ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/01/14/o...

Serious concerns raised over proliferation of Ohio data centers • Ohio Capital Journal As Ohio entices yet more data centers, a watchdog group is raising important questions about whether that's good for average Ohioans, noting the relatively small number of jobs created and the extreme...

In Ohio, we're again handing out lavish tax incentives, this time to big tech companies to build data centers. And once again the companies — desperate for more capacity for AI — seemed likely to build them anyway. I'm told Indiana is doing the same.
ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/01/13/s...