About the Tribune

What this is

The Olsen Tribune publishes one careful read on the PBM space each week. Each issue takes a single story breaking in pharmacy benefits, FTC actions, Medicaid Best Price, formulary politics, manufacturer rebate flows, GLP-1 utilization, the white-bagging fight, the 340B program, and sets out plainly what changes and what doesn’t. Five-minute read. One number that matters per section. One chart that earns its place.

No press-release rewrites. No “PBM bad” or “PBM good.” No predictions about stock prices. The goal is to be the publication you read when you want to understand what actually happened, separate from what the headlines said happened.

How each issue is made

Each issue starts from the primary documents. Consent decrees, 10-K filings, FTC reports, congressional testimony, MedPAC analyses, court filings, agency rulemaking, manufacturer disclosures. Reading those is the work. Whatever ends up in the issue has been sourced back to a document you could open in your browser if you wanted to verify.

Research is AI-assisted. Document parsing, source mapping, and first-pass summarization all use modern AI tools because they do those tasks faster than a human can. The take, the verification, and the writing are not. Every factual claim is checked against a primary source by a human before it ships. Every chart references the data that produced it. The Tribune treats AI as the world’s most patient research analyst, not as the byline.

Who writes it

Chris Olsen writes every issue. He is early in his career in pharmacy benefits and started the Tribune to think rigorously about the industry as he learns it.

The Tribune is built on a simple commitment: accurate reporting, transparent sourcing, and plain language. Every issue starts from primary documents and presents the facts without taking a side, so readers at any level of familiarity with the industry can come away with a clearer picture.

The Tribune is written in conversation with its readers. Industry professionals, students, and engaged newcomers are encouraged to share corrections, counterarguments, and recommended reading.

What’s in scope

Pharmacy benefit managers and their structural environment. That includes manufacturer pricing, rebate flows, formulary design, Medicare Part D, Medicaid drug rebates, the 340B program, specialty pharmacy economics, white bagging, copay accumulators and maximizers, transparency legislation, FTC and DOJ enforcement, state-level PBM regulation, and the strategic moves of the Big Three (Express Scripts, Caremark, OptumRx) and the upstart cost-plus competitors (Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, Capital Rx, Navitus, Smith Rx, others).

Out of scope, at least for now: hospital strategy, payer M&A unrelated to PBMs, biotech R&D pipelines, broad health policy debates that aren’t about how prescriptions get paid for. The narrower the scope, the deeper each issue can go.

Cadence and format

One issue per week, published on the same day each week (you’ll know it when you see it). Each issue runs five minutes. The format is consistent: kicker, headline, deck, lead, two or three sections of analysis, one or two charts, what to watch, the bottom line. Consistency is the point. You should know what you’re getting before you click.

How it’s funded

The Tribune is currently free and unsponsored. As the audience grows, that may change. If a paid tier or sponsored issue ever launches, it will be disclosed clearly and prominently. The Tribune will not run sponsored content from PBMs, drug manufacturers, or any company it covers.

Contact

Tips, corrections, civil disagreements, and reading recommendations all welcome at colsen8128@gmail.com. Confidential tips can request off-the-record treatment in the first email and they’ll get it.

For corrections, email is best. The Tribune updates issues with a visible correction note when something material is wrong; if it was non-material, the correction is logged in the colophon of the next issue.