PCMA is releasing ten years of independent and chain retail pharmacy count data for every state. The number of independent retail pharmacies nationwide increased 8% over the last ten years, and 1.2% over the last five years, suggesting a stable marketplace.

Over the last five years, the marketplace for independent pharmacies has experienced small fluctuations from year-to-year sometimes gaining stores, sometimes losing stores. These recent fluctuations in the overall number of stores have not dramatically shifted the independent pharmacy market.

Thanks to PBMs’ efforts to give patients an incentive to use them and pharmacies an incentive to purchase them at the lowest prices, generics are widely available and affordable for hundreds of millions of Americans.

Using data from CMS, we see increases in the average plan contract-level beneficiary adherence to hypertension medication. Gains in adherence translates to real people staying on their medications and having better health outcomes.

This blog introduces a new series of blog posts that will look at interesting trends using the CMS’s historical Part D Star Ratings data, focusing on four measures of prescription drug adherence.

New report from the Congressional Budget Office highlights the value of PBMs in keeping net drug costs low for payers and patients.