"Transparency," a growing buzzword in the pharmaceutical industry, is making another premiere at Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co.
The company publishes all of its drug prices on its website, which account for the manufacturing costs, plus a $5 pharmacy labor fee, a $5 shipping fee and a 15% markup. In another move to boost transparency, Mark Cuban told Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" Aug. 12 that the company will soon publish its contracts.
"We're just getting it approved [Aug. 12] — we're going to publish all contracts," Mr. Cuban, co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs, said. "Never before has it been done where, for my companies, we're saying, 'If you want to do business with us, if this hospital system wants to work with my companies, whatever it may be, we're going to publish them and put them online for anybody to see all of our pricing.'"
Two health systems currently partner with Cost Plus Drugs: Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems and Louisville, Ky.-based ScionHealth, which operate a combined 165 hospitals.
On "The Daily Show," Mr. Cuban discussed the controversies surrounding pharmacy benefit managers and how his company plans to disrupt the $4.3 trillion U.S. healthcare industry.
"The first rule when [PBMs] negotiate they say is, 'You can't talk about this,'" he said. "It's like [the film] 'Fight Club.' You cannot say what your price is. You can't say what we're doing in our negotiation. And, they got so big doing that that nobody ever questioned them."
The Federal Trade Commission and several other organizations are questioning the biggest PBMs and their business practices.