March 18, 2011 
Those of you that follow the industry are certainly aware of this news story. It was definitely a surprise this past week when CalPERS announced that they were dropping Medco as their PBM based on allegations of improper behavior.
For an industry where transparency has replaced years of opaqueness, this will be an issue. Whether Medco is guilty or not-guilty, industry foes will use this to taint the perception of the PBMs. I am sure some people cheered when this came out thinking “finally we may have found something” while the rest of us shook our heads in disbelief.
Enabling Healthy Decisions 
$4 million in “fees” that Medco “paid” to CalPERS is nothing but a drop in the bucket for a company/Medco that made $60 BILLION in revenue last year. Medco and the rest of the PBMs do this sort of thing ALL THE TIME. the only difference in this case is that MEDCO and CALPERS got CAUGHT!