Background: When insurance companies began offering prescription drugs as a health plan benefit in the 1960s, PBMs were created to help insurers contain drug spending.

Who was the first PBM?

In 1968, the first PBM was founded when Pharmaceutical Card System Inc. (PCS, later AdvancePCS) invented the plastic benefit card. By the "1970s, [they] serve[d] as fiscal intermediaries by adjudicating prescription drug claims by paper and then, in the 1980s, electronically".

When were PBMs created?

Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) Defined

They were created in the 1960s to process claims for insurance companies. By the 1970s, PBMs were serving as fiscal intermediaries adjudicating prescription drug claims.