"...But the main problem...is simple: They’re no longer getting paid enough to stay in business. In the multifront battle to cut costs in America’s expensive health care system, pharmacies say they are shouldering a disproportionate...burden.
“That traditional model of that corner drugstore that is just dispensing prescriptions is very difficult, if not impossible, to make work these days,” says Oftebro, adding that at his pharmacies, “reimbursement on the majority of prescriptions is now at or below the acquisition cost of the drugs.”
For this, many blame the middlemen: the pharmacy benefit managers. The three largest PBMs are owned by or affiliated with insurance companies—CVS’s Caremark (which shares a corporate parent with Aetna), UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx, and Cigna’s Express Scripts—and together they control how 80% of all U.S. prescriptions are processed..."
UCHealth violating Colorado law by engaging a front company to sue their indigent patients. Since the debt serving company did not actually buy the debt from UCHealth, and doesn't own the debt, it has no standing to sue. But the poor folks being harassed by UCHealth don't know that.
And of course, they're suing people whose insurance has already paid, or who never got bills in the first place, and the front company has refused to supply itemized bills - which is also flouting federal law.
This is healthcare in the US, and it's disgusting.