Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville was stunned to be taught that the explanation her face was swelling, her speech was impaired and she or he was shedding her enamel was due to breast implants she received 20 years in the past.
A ruptured breast implant triggered extreme facial disfigurement that set her again $200,000 in medical payments — and fuzzy pharmacy pricing would have additional compounded her prices had she not turned to Mark Cuban’s pharmacy firm for assist navigating the medical mess.
The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (MCCPDC) operates an internet pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs (1), and a clear Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM).
Rachel Strauss, PBM Princess CEO, has been leveraging Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs pharmacy to supply Glanville inexpensive remedy.
“Rachel turned to us to help Brandi because we are the only truly transparent pricing pharmacy,” Cuban instructed Page Six (2).
On Glanville’s “I Do, Part 2” podcast (3), she chronicles her three-year journey from feeling sick with signs like mind fog, joint ache and facial disfigurement to visiting 21 docs in a determined seek for a prognosis.
After years of no solutions, a sonogram finally found that her proper breast implant had ruptured and leaked silicone, which ultimately clogged her lymph nodes — and led to a facial parasite that deformed her face.
Glanville instructed TMZ (4) that she ought to have swapped her implants out for a brand new pair a decade in the past — on the 10-year mark — however she determined to not as a result of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
In 2011, the The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched a 63-page report (5) on the security of silicone breast implants. The report means that one out of 5 sufferers will want some kind of revision process after 10 years of an preliminary breast augmentation resulting from problems like extra scarring contained in the breast (capsular contracture) and damaged implants.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (6), nonetheless, with correct monitoring — reminiscent of by means of each self-exams and doctor exams — “you don’t need to automatically replace your implants every 10 years.”
Glanville wrongly assumed she was superb, and she or he paid the worth — a hefty value of about $200,000, she stated on her podcast.
“I had insurance, but the people at my insurance … suck,” she stated on her podcast. “I was, like, paying out of pocket to see specialists, infectious disease doctors, you know, rheumatologists. Every doctor you can think of, I saw.”
The exorbitant — and infrequently fluctuating — costs of her crucial medicines made the expertise that rather more financially distressing.
Headed into 2026, Glanville instructed Us Weekly (7) that she was lastly “feeling so much better” following her latest well being struggles. But she actually did not get thus far of peace with out placing up a pharmaceutical combat.
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Strauss has been working with Glanville to undergo her payments and pharmacy receipts line by line. In doing so, they discovered a “tremendous discrepancy from one month to another for the same exact drug,” Strauss instructed Page Six.
“We have to advocate for ourselves,” she continues, explaining that buyers can’t at all times take what pharmacies say because the “source of truth.”
Now, PBM Princess is working with Glanville’s pharmacy to see what cash it owes her again. Had she gone to Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs within the first place, nonetheless, she’d have seen as a lot as a 70 to 80 % differential, Strauss stated. Many of her medication had been upwards of $30, which might have value her solely $6 to $8.
While many individuals consider that drug analysis and growth (R&D) is a root trigger of upper drugs costs, a latest examine (8) discovered zero connection between how a lot firms spend on R&D and drug costs.
The actual motive for the sticker shock, based on Cuban? “Greed.”
The U.S. pays, by a longshot, the very best costs on the planet for prescribed drugs, though most pharmaceutical firms rake in billions in income, based on the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (9). Meanwhile, researchers (10) have discovered that the identical medication made by the identical firms to deal with the identical well being points value far much less in Europe.
“There are pharmacy benefit managers and a few pharmacies that will charge whatever they can get away with,” Cuban defined to Page Six of the U.S. drug pricing mannequin.
Pharmacy profit managers (PBMs) negotiate costs with well being insurers and pharmacies, deciding which medication are lined and the way a lot sufferers pay for them. State laws (11) intends to restrict what PBMs can really do, and Congress enacted PBM transparency laws in February by way of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (H.R. 7148) (12), which mandates the disclosure of all rebates, charges, and compensation to plan sponsors.
But PBMs usually base their charges on a share of the entire spend on drugs, which incentivizes them to barter rebates contingent on high-list-price, preferred-tier placement. This pumps up sufferers’ out-of-pocket prices.
“Brandi unfortunately was denied the care that she needed for her illnesses from the medical side,” Strauss stated. “What’s even more unfortunate is she trusted the pharmacy side to also have her best interests – when clearly they did not… It is a shame we weren’t able to get these savings sooner – and she was forced out of pocket.”
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (13) permits the U.S. authorities to barter drug costs for Medicare, which intends to decrease the price of medication — the primary 10 of which took impact earlier this yr. While extra medication will proceed to be added to the listing annually, there are millions of FDA-approved medication on the market (14). In different phrases: The answer will not profit everybody.
To keep away from discovering your self in the identical monetary scenario as Granville, it is price asking your healthcare supplier if each drug prescribed to you is really medically crucial — and whether or not or not it (or a doubtlessly lower-cost generic substitute) is medically crucial on the dose prescribed.
If it’s, you will wish to ask the correct questions of your pharmacist, as nicely. With the assistance of Strauss, Ganville went to her pharmacy and requested for the final yr of what she had paid. This approach, she was in a position to affirm fluctuating charges, and she will be able to now use these insights to match costs at different pharmacies.
Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs pharmacy, for instance, would not alter drug costs by metropolis or state — or change them by date. At current, it’s the solely pharmacy that publishes a value listing and costs each shopper the very same value for a similar remedy.
“When you go to our website and type in the name of your medication, and it’s one of the thousands we carry, we show you our actual cost,” the Shark Tank star instructed Page Six, including that there’s a customary markup of simply 15 % and a $5 delivery price. “That’s it. That means our pricing is very often the lowest available.”
Cost Plus Drugs negotiates instantly with medical producers to get shoppers the very best costs — after which exhibits them precisely how a lot they’re going to must pay the pharmacy to maintain it working and for it to arrange and ship prescriptions.
Regardless of your alternative of pharmacy, costs can generally be decrease if you happen to really do not use your insurance coverage. That’s resulting from excessive deductibles, administrative charges, and negotiated charges.
Some prescription drug low cost applications (15) supply financial savings, as nicely, however they may not depend towards insurance coverage deductibles or most out-of-pocket prices if you happen to do want to make use of insurance coverage.
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Cost Plus Drugs (1); Page Six (2); iHeart (3); TMZ (4); U.S. Food and Drug Administration (5),(14); American Society of Plastic Surgeons (6); Us Weekly (7); JAMA Network (8),(10); U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (9); National Academy for State Health Policy (11); Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney (12); Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (13); Medicare (15)
This article initially appeared on Moneywise.com below the title: Mark Cuban says pharma ‘greed’ preyed on Real Housewives star Brandi Glanville after six-figure facial disfigurement
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