Latest news with #GrahamStokes
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As pharmacies close, Ohio Chamber blasted for siding with middlemen
The Ohio Chamber of Commerce in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original article.) Owners of small pharmacies — many themselves members of local chambers of commerce — are accusing the Ohio Chamber of Commerce of siding with huge corporate middlemen who are driving them out of business. That undermines Ohioans' health and costs the state's businesses and taxpayers far more in the long run, the pharmacists say. Pharmacies of all sizes are battling with drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, over provisions in the state budget governing how prescription drugs are priced and how pharmacies are paid for dispensing them. Measures intended to help pharmacies were built into the Ohio House version of the state operating budget, stripped out by the Ohio Senate, and are now in the hands of a conference committee working against a June 30 deadline. New data show Ohio pharmacy closures even worse than originally thought Ohio and other states have been hemorrhaging pharmacies for years, and at an accelerating pace. Last year, Ohio lost 215 pharmacies and the total number dropped below 2,000 for the first time in memory, according to an online tracker launched by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. That creates serious health concerns, especially in underserved areas where many face health and transportation challenges. The loss of a community's sole pharmacy can make it nearly impossible for some to get their medicine or professional advice about how to manage their diabetes or blood pressure. Closures of isolated pharmacies creates deserts, and they're growing. In Meigs County in Southeastern Ohio, for example, nearly 40% of the census tracts are part of what the pharmacy board calls pharmacy deserts. 'As more pharmacies close in Ohio, we're going to see poorer health — we're not going to see positive outcomes,' said Denise Conway, owner of Conway's Danville Pharmacy. 'We're going to see more ER visits. It's just going to cost employers more.' CVS in 2017 bought and closed the Lonsinger's, the sole pharmacy in Danville, leaving the nearest one in Mount Vernon, 12 miles away. 'One man broke down crying,' librarian Betty Carpenter in 2019 told The Columbus Dispatch about an elderly resident. 'He said, 'I can't walk to Mount Vernon.' He could walk to Lonsinger's.' Also in 2019, Conway and her husband bought a Danville building and opened a pharmacy there while Knox County opened a health clinic on the premises. It was a rare example of a health care desert restored to life. Other Ohio communities aren't likely to be so fortunate. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE 'We're down to about 300 independents,' said Dave Burke, a pharmacist, former state senator and executive director of the Ohio Pharmacists Association. 'We're really afraid as an organization that people are going to lose access to care. Care that keeps them out of the hospital. Care that shortens their stay in the hospital. And care that keeps them employed.' Burke and many other pharmacists blame the rush of closures on the conduct of the big PBMs, the middlemen that are part of giant corporations. They decide on behalf of insurers what drugs are covered, and they decide how much to reimburse pharmacies for the drugs they dispense. The three biggest PBMs — CVS Caremark, OptumRX and Express Scripts — control nearly 80% of the covered prescriptions in the United States. Critics say that enables them to extract huge, non-transparent discounts from drugmakers. They say it also enables them to force pharmacies into disadvantageous, take-it-or-leave-it contracts. Critics say that reimbursements under them are low and that they impose arbitrary rules and fees. Each of the big-three PBMs is part of a vertically integrated, Fortune 15 health conglomerate. Each of those also owns a top-10 health insurer. In addition, CVS owns the largest retail pharmacy chain and they all own mail-order pharmacies. So the big three get to decide how much to reimburse their own pharmacies as well as those of their competitors. Pharmacists and their advocates say the disputed language in the state budget would end those conflicts and rectify many problems. It would prohibit PBMs from imposing rules (and subsequently charging fees) that go beyond those of the Ohio Board of Pharmacy. It would end the murky system of reimbursements by requiring PBMs to pay pharmacies the prices listed in a public database — the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost, or NADAC, survey. And it would require PBMs to pay pharmacies roughly $10 for each prescription they dispense. With the NADAC reimbursement meant to ensure pharmacies break even on the drugs, the dispensing fees are meant to cover overhead such as payroll, supplies, rent, and insurance. 'By definition the calculation is break-even,' Burke said. 'You are paying (Medicaid's) post-rebate cost of the drug. The only way to cover the bottle, the cost of the lid, the bag, the heat, the lights, the payroll is the dispensing fee.' The provisions that the state Senate stripped out of its budget version mirror reforms the Ohio Department of Medicaid undertook in 2022. Following concerns among pharmacists and investigations by a newspaper and the state auditor, the department mounted its own probe of drug transactions. It learned that in 2017, two PBMs — CVS Caremark and OptumRx — billed the state $224 million more for drugs than they paid the pharmacies that had bought and dispensed them. The Medicaid department fired the PBMs, created its own, single PBM, based reimbursements on the NADAC survey and started paying pharmacists a $10 per-prescription dispensing fee. Despite the higher reimbursements and dispensing fees, an analysis released earlier this year found that the new arrangement saved the state $140 million. That led many to conclude that the middlemen were skimming a hefty portion of the money flowing through the system. Ohio Medicaid got rid of big middlemen, paid pharmacies more and saved $140 million, report says Even so, applying the same rules to non-Medicaid transactions would 'harm small businesses and their employees,' said Rick Carfagna, a former state representative who is now the senior vice president of government affairs at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. 'PBMs are business-to-business entities, and they exist only because a company or health plan hires them,' Carfagna said in an email. 'When you increase dispensing fees on a per-prescription basis, you're impacting the ability of employers, including small businesses, local governments and labor organizations, to balance their budgets by controlling their health care costs. These increased fees eventually find their way downstream, in whole or in part, to all of those employers utilizing PBMs.' Carfagna didn't respond directly when asked whether Ohio's independent and small-chain pharmacies are themselves small businesses that have been rapidly disappearing. Conway, who is herself chair-elect of the Knox County Chamber of Commerce, said Carfagna and the Ohio Chamber used deceptive language in fighting for the PBMs. 'The Ohio Chamber in their testimony called the dispense fee a tax,' she said. 'It's by no means a tax. It's the cost of running a business. A dispense fee has always been built into the model of reimbursing a pharmacy. You can't put a zero there. It's the cost of running a business.' Burke, executive director of the Ohio Pharmacists Association, said the Ohio Chamber's position also ignores that Ohio Medicaid saved money when it increased dispensing fees and switched to a transparent system of reimbursements. Several other states, most recently Minnesota, have adopted similar arrangements. 'Every state that has gone to a transparent model hasn't gone back to the traditional one,' Burke said. 'They're saving money and they're not going back.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio's 442 craft breweries had a $1.29 billion economic impact in 2024
A flight of four craft beers on the bar, June 8, 2023, at Restoration Brew Worx in Delaware, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.) Cheers for Ohio beer. Ohio's 442 craft breweries brought in $1.29 billion of economic activity in 2024, according to the Ohio Craft Brewers Association economic and fiscal impact of Ohio's craft brewing industry. This is an increase from 2022 when Ohio breweries contributed $1.27 billion to the economy. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ohio's craft beer industry had 9,753 direct jobs and an additional 2,502 indirect jobs sustaining 8,095 Ohio households, according to the biennial report. Beer was flowing in Ohio with 1.15 million barrels brewed. Ohio craft breweries generated an estimated $128.6 million of state and local taxes and $99.1 million of federal taxes in 2024, according to the report. The number of craft breweries in Ohio continued to go up. There were 45 in 2011, 135 in 2015, 300 in 2018, 357 in 2020, 420 in 2022, and 442 in 2024, according to the report. 53 breweries are in planning around the state. The Northwest region had 41 craft breweries that brewed 17,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $78 million. The North Central region had 37 craft breweries that brewed 10,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $36.1 million. The Greater Cleveland region had 59 craft breweries that brewed 209,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $231 million. The Northeast region had 49 craft breweries that brewed 26,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $71.2 million. The State Line region had 46 craft breweries that brewed 9,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $34.8 million. The West Central region had 39 craft breweries that brewed 16,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $60.7 million. The Greater Columbus region had 56 craft breweries that brewed 159,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $184 million. The Greater Cincinnati region had 50 craft breweries that brewed 669,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $495.6 million. The Southwest region had 33 craft breweries that brewed 16,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $45.7 million. The Southeast region had 32 craft breweries that brewed 19,000 barrels of beer for an economic impact of $52.4 million. Ohio breweries will likely see the effects of new tariffs on aluminum, steel and malted barley. A tariff is a tax on imported goods and President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on aluminum and steel imported into the United States, and a 25% tariff on Canadian barley. There were 9,796 craft breweries across the country in 2024. Last year was the first year since 2005 that there were more brewery closing than openings nationwide — with 430 new breweries and 529 breweries closed, according to the Brewers Association. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
All five of Ohio's intellectual diversity centers have named executive directors
On the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for the Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.) It's been nearly two years since Ohio's five intellectual diversity centers were signed into law and one has already begun offering classes. All five independent academic centers have named their executive directors and the University of Toledo Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership started classes this past school year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ohio's 2023 two-year state budget allocated $24 million for the centers — $5 million each fiscal year to Ohio State University, $1 million each fiscal year to the University of Toledo and $2 million each fiscal year for each center at Miami University, Cleveland State University and Wright State University. The centers at Ohio State, Miami, Cleveland State and Wright State 'shall conduct teaching and research in the historical ideas, traditions, and texts that have shaped the American constitutional order and society,' according to the law. The University of Toledo's institute is 'established for the purpose of creating and disseminating knowledge about American constitutional thought and to form future leaders of the legal profession through research, scholarship, teaching, collaboration, and mentorship,' according to the law. The Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society will start offering classes in the fall semester including three versions of an American Civic Tradition Class, said university spokesperson Chris Booker. The Chase Center is housed in the John Glenn College of Public Affairs. Lee Strang was named the executive director of the Chase Center last summer. He previously was the director at the University of Toledo Institute of American Constitutional Thought and Leadership. The Chase Center — which will have at least 15 tenure-track faculty members — is in the process of hiring faculty, Booker said. The center has already hosted several events, including a conversation with Ohio State President Ted Carter. Ohio State's University Senate voted against a proposal to formally establish the Chase Center back in January, according to The Columbus Dispatch. 'While we respect the voice of the senate, we were disappointed in the vote,' Booker said in an email. 'The Chase Center was established in 2023 by the state of Ohio via statute, and Ohio State must develop and operate the center in line with those legal requirements.' Nine courses have been offered through Toledo's institute since the 2024 summer semester including the art of statesmanship, the art of rhetoric, civic discourse, competing theories of justice, and model U.S. Senate, said university spokesperson Nicki Gorny. The institute plans on adding a couple American civics courses this upcoming school year and has hosted more than a dozen public lectures and debates since January 2024, Gorny said. Jonathan Culp from the University of Dallas will become the institute's new director in July. Michael Gonzalez is currently the institute's interim director. Flagg Taylor was recently named the executive director of Miami's Center for Civics, Culture, and Society. He was approved as the director in April and he previously was a political science professor at Skidmore University in New York. Miami's center will be in the College of Arts and Science and will operate alongside the university's Menard Family Center for Democracy. The university is planning to offer classes through the center this fall, university spokesperson Seth Bauguess said. Wright State hopes to start offering classes through the university's Center for Civics, Culture and Workforce Development in fall 2026, said university spokesperson Bob Mihalek. Proposed courses could include American civic literacy, from idea to law: an experiential journey through the legislative process and upholding the constitution: exploring your oath, Mihalek said. Jason Anderson was chosen as the center's executive director. He is a retired Air Force veteran and a former faculty member with the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Peter Koritansky was picked to be the director of the university's Center for Civics, Culture and Society and his first day will be June 1, said university spokesperson Kristin Broka. He is currently a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada. The center will be housed in the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio Elections Commission urges state senators to restore funding in budget
The Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.) The future is far from certain for the Ohio Elections Commission after House budget drafters moved to eliminate the agency. Now the state Senate gets its turn to tweak the two-year spending plan. OEC executive director Phil Richter went before a Senate committee last week to make the case for his agency. The Ohio Elections Commission is a seven-member body that operates as an independent agency with oversight of campaign finance laws. The governor appoints three Democrats and three Republicans who in turn select the unaffiliated seventh member of the commission. Richter warned state senators that turning campaign finance laws over to an official appointed by the secretary of state or the county board of elections will create chaos. 'Instead of one statewide decision-making body, there will be 89 separate applications of Ohio's campaign finance laws,' he said. 'Instead of one bipartisan, collegial panel, there could be 89 separate decisions made along party lines.' Richter added the new responsibilities could create an 'unfunded mandate' for the offices that would begin handling campaign finance cases. He also noted the Ohio House version of the budget zeroes out funding for the commission starting in July, but doesn't actually abolish the agency until Jan. 1 next year. 'It is unconscionable to me,' Richter said, 'that the current budget would expect the commission and its staff to work for six months without any funding.' Critics argue the commission process is too slow and too burdensome for many of the people that come before it. They contend the process itself — driving multiple times to Columbus to sit for hearings — is more punitive than the OEC's eventual fines. State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, who's leading the House budget process has been on the receiving end of a long-running campaign finance complaint. 'I've had a four-year front row seat to how inept this process is,' he said in an interview last month. Far from seeing that as a conflict of interest, he argued 'those who have spent years being drug through the mud' are the best ones to reform an agency. Lawmakers' questions State Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson, D-Toledo, asked if the House's plan would lead to a 'patchwork of decisions.' 'That's a very real possibility,' Richter said, adding that it would be 'challenge' to have the same office running elections and judging campaign finance violations and still deal in an 'independent, nonpartisan, unbiased way.' The committee chairman, state Sen. Tim Schaffer, R-Lancaster, wondered what was so bad about the House's plan. He described serving on a board that got advice from the county prosecutor. 'What's the problem with that model, as long as they have an assistant prosecutor who has knowledge of election laws?' he asked. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Richter argued the commission would be putting itself 'into a situation where that partisan factor is always there.' Without an independent voice to break a potential tie between the two Democrats and two Republicans on a board, he said, decisions could easily break along partisan lines. State Sen. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, complained about candidates putting up untruthful signs. As a hypothetical, he described hearing complaints about a candidate using a sign describing themselves as a commissioner when they haven't yet won office. 'The commission is not going to look at it for 45 to 60 days — that person is either going to be elected or lose their election by the time it happens,' Koehler said. 'It's almost as if, again, I've said these words: There's really nothing you can do.' Richter acknowledged his frustration but explained there's little the commission can do following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Ohio's law against false campaign statements. Koehler pressed Richter to ensure the commission holds people accountable. He argued too many candidates get fines that amount to a slap on the wrist for significant violations. 'I don't know what the Senate is going to do,' Koehler said about the possibility of restoring funding for the Ohio Elections Commission. 'If that happens, I'm just going to say that I hope the election commission uses more teeth.' Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio Senate passes bill that would require hemp products to only be sold at marijuana dispensaries
Flowers of hemp plants that contain less that 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) the primary psychoactive substance in marijuana, to be used for student instruction at the Cleveland School of Cannabis, October 30, 2023, in Independence, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original article.) The Ohio Senate unanimously passed a bill that would regulate intoxicating hemp and drinkable cannabinoid products. Ohio Senate Bill 86 would require intoxicating hemp products to be sold only at adult-use marijuana dispensaries instead of allowing them to be sold at CBD stores, convenience stores, smoke shops, or gas stations. The bill now moves to the Ohio House for consideration. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'Current intoxicated hemp products are untested and unregulated,' said Ohio state Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City. 'The bill protects buyers from gaining access to these intoxicating products and ensures adults can still purchase them from existing regulated operators.' Huffman introduced the bill with state Sen. Shane Wilkin, R-Hillsboro. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has implored lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products. The bill would also impose a 10% tax on intoxicating hemp products, ban sales to anyone under 21, and would only allow intoxicating hemp products to be sold at dispensaries if the products have been tested and comply with standards for packaging, labeling, and advertising. During discussion on the bill on Wednesday, senators talked primarily about how the bill would protect Ohio kids. 'This bill regulates intoxicating hemp products and removes the untested, unsafe items that are marketed toward children from corner stores and vape shops and gas stations,' said state Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus. 'It includes requirements for product testing, safe packaging, age verification. These are all common sense measures.' Wilkin spoke about how a health commissioner in his district came across an intoxicating hemp product that looked like Rice Krispies cereal box. 'That is marketed to kids,' he said. 'We don't know what's in them and unfortunately they are, without question, ending up in our kids' hands and that's not right.' Children's safety and standardization got the Senate Democrats on board with the bill as well, according to Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood. 'The more we can narrow in the standardization and some oversight … and the safety of them, the better we are,' she said. 'Is it perfect? No, but does it really get to some of the positive changes for safety's sake? I think so.' CBD store owners previously testified against the bill, arguing this could potentially put them out of business. During testimony in March, Bellefontaine business owner Jaimee Courtney said the bill would eliminate 90% of the 'non-intoxicating full-spectrum hemp products' her business offers, and that the bill would 'drive consumers to unregulated online markets.' 'I don't have a lot of sympathy for some of those businesses that are now being forced to not offer a product that was very clearly dangerous and targeted towards children,' said Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon. 'I still think if (shops) were operating before (intoxicating hemp), they're going to be able to operate after.' Members of the marijuana business, poison control workers, and religious organizations testified in support of the bill. The 2018 U.S. Farm Bill says hemp can be legally grown if it contains less than 0.3% THC. Ohio is one of about 20 states that does not have any regulations around intoxicating hemp products, according to an Ohio State University Drug Enforcement and Policy Center study from November 2024. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
