title: Pharmacy benefit management companies: dimensions of performance.
abstract: Research on pharmacy benefit management companies focuses on descriptive accounts of the organizations and the scope of their services. This review provides a critical analysis of publicly available research on contemporary issues surrounding the operations and effects of pharmacy benefit management companies. There has been very little systematic, empirical research on these issues; major questions concerning the impact of pharmacy benefit management companies on quality, costs, and patient outcomes remain unanswered. We analyze what is known and what needs to be known, and we explore major research challenges that lie ahead in the assessment of the pharmacy benefit management company's role in the health care system and in improving the public's health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, University of California at San Francisco 94109, USA. lipton@itsa.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Lipton
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kreling
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Hertz
mesh_terms: D004345:Drug Industry / Q000592:standards*; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007356:Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000592:standards*; D020399:Practice Management; D011786:Quality Control; D014481:United States