(Wall Street Journal) – The drug middlemen that promise to control costs have instead steered patients toward higher-priced medicines and affiliated pharmacies—steps that increase spending and reduce patient choice, a House investigation found.

The pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, have devised formularies of preferred medicines that encouraged use of higher-priced drugs over lower-priced alternatives, the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability found.

The PBMs have also made patients pay more to use their local pharmacy rather than a mail-order pharmacy affiliated with the manager, according to a committee report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. (Read More)