PharmaCo's website indicates that it
represents a nationwide collective of compounding pharmacies that provide fulfillment services to physicians participating in topical pain modalities.
We do business in all 50 states through our Pharmacy Partnership Program, jointly delivering a compelling suite of services for physicians (Practice Support Program - hyperlink this to the description) that minimizes practice overhead while maximizing patient satisfaction.
quoted from PharmaCo website. Would the draft Senate or House Legislation cover a LLC that includes an "alliance" of compounding pharmacies? Is this a way for compounding pharmacies to avoid the draft federal legislation applying to them? How many compounding pharmacies are already a part of this alliance? Who is a part of this alliance? Does Congress need specific provisions to deal with these types of groups? Will we see more of these partnership/alliances forming? Will a similar alliance form with regard to compounding veterinary pharmacies?
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These componded pain cream pharmacies offer "split-fee" / kickback relationships to their prescribing physicians. "Patient-brokering" is a 3rd degree felony in Florida (not thatthe law is enforced). Because the "listed Average Wholesale Price (AWP) is 1000% higher than the actual AWP that the compounding pharmacies actually pay for their Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API's), the markup (or spread between their costs to buy the ingredient drugs and the amount they bill insurance companies) is enormous. Hence, these compounding pharmacies offers sales agents salaries (based upon commision) of $200,000/year, just to convince prescribing physicians to send scripts to their pharmacy (whether the patient needs it of not).
Crazy world. The legislation proposed in Congress does nothing to stop that. And with State Boards of Pharmacy (and the state employees who work in their Bureaus of Enfocement) who do not enforce laws already on the books, these types of abuses will continue (and expand to where eventually, years down the road), the system can't afford all this exploitation of patients (and their insurance companies) for financial gain.
Kenneth Woliner, MD
www.holisticfamilymed.com
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