The bill to stop outrageous markups on physician-dispensed drugs is all but dead, a victim of a highly effective, and very well-coordinated lobbying and public relations campaign financed by wealthy opponents who used employers’ own dollars to kill the bill.
Dispensing companies make tens of millions of profit charging employers twice to six times more for drugs than they would pay a retail pharmacist. A small portion of that money – only about $3.4 million – has been spent currying political favor, with several hundred thousand dollars finding its way into the coffers of the current Florida Senate President. Mike Haridopolos is using his powers to prevent the bill from coming to the floor, knowing if it does, it has the votes to pass.
This is a big defeat for employers, who will see higher workers comp costs, and tax payers, who are paying for inflated costs for drugs used by injured state workers.
One has to admire the effectiveness of the physician dispensing companies; confronted with an existential threat, they spent whatever they needed to, put together a very impressive dis-information campaign, convinced several probably well-intentioned physicians to take their side, and duped enough legislators to allow Haridopolos to ride off into the sunset retiring with hundreds of thousands of dollars in their contributions still at his disposal.
A colleague recently pointed out that Florida has tried to stop this outrageous profiteering on the backs of employers and taxpayers for three years running, and each year the result has been worse than the year before. Then-Governor Charlie Crist vetoed a cost cap unanimously passed by both houses three sessions ago, and this year we won’t even get a vote in the Senate.
For employers and insurers, it is crystal clear that bringing a knife to a gun fight produces an inevitable result.
In what looks to be the very definition of “too little, too late”, the Florida Chamber of Commerce is asking its members to email Haridopolos in what looks to be a rather pointless and somewhat pathetic effort to undo what is clearly a done deal.
For now, it’s over. Employers lost. Taxpayers lost. Good government lost.
The question is, will the Chamber, insurers, employers, tax payers, and decent politicians learn the lesson, or will we – all of us – fail again next year.
Mar
9
I would hate for a young idealistic person to see the way that rape can be performed in public on the business operators and carriers of Florida for the price of about a million dollars a year; three years in a row. We can only hope that a mainstream investigative report comes out soon enough to illuminate the corruption of the elected men that where bought on this issue. And your right Joe – While I admire the Florida Chamber for their zeal, they should have brought a wheel barrow full of money instead of an extremely valid point to Tallahassee. The repackagers (mainly AHCS) are way more organized and ruthless than the chamber will ever be.