Ohio BWC hires new pharmacy benefits manager

The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation is set to begin its contract with another pharmacy benefits manager on Nov. 1, a move a spokeswoman told Business Insurance is not directly tied to a report that found its current PBM had been overcharging for generic prescriptions.

BWC’s contract with Optum Workers’ Comp and Auto No-Fault for pharmacy benefit manager services was expiring “so we began a request for proposal process and have selected Change Healthcare for the new contract” and that “BWC would have been issuing this (request for proposals) regardless of whether there were any issues with the current vendor as the contract was set to expire Oct. 31.”

Columbus, Ohio-based data analytics firm Healthplan Data Solutions L.L.C. reviewed prescription data in Ohio’s comp system for 2017 and found that the BWC had been overcharged $5.6 million for generic drugs that year, the spokeswoman wrote in an email to BI.

“The issue with the current contract relates to the price BWC pays for generic drugs. The price BWC has been paying for generics has been higher than the price negotiated in the contract,” she wrote.

Optum did not immediately return requests for comment.