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Benefits August 12, 2008
Employers Count on Workers to Help Control Pharmacy Benefit Costs
August 12, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The success of
pharmacy benefit cost management strategies cited by
respondents to a survey from Buck Consultants will depend
largely in part on employee involvement.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
According to a Buck press release, the most important clinical management steps employers are taking to control pharmacy benefit costs are disease management, care management, and smoking cessation programs. The top strategic initiatives for long-term cost management cited by respondents include:
- Providing employees with tools and information,
- Providing employee education, and
- Worksite wellness and health activities.
Specialty Medications
While Michael Jacobs, a principal at Buck Consultants, says the emergence of new, very expensive specialty medications is one of the trends driving employers to review their cost management strategies, 28% of survey respondents did not know their relative spend on these expensive drugs. Fifty-two percent of survey respondents said they believe specialty medications represent 10% or less of their total pharmacy costs.
Almost all (99%) respondents to Buck's survey said
they provide prescription drug coverage as part of their
health care program for active employees. Employers cite
the health of employees and business competitiveness as
the most important reasons for providing this coverage,
according to the press release.
Fifty-one percent of respondents indicated they use
employee cost sharing as a utilization management tool,
with the most common cost-sharing range being 21% to 30%
(used by 44% of respondents).
According to Jacobs, more than one-third (37%) of
respondents said pharmacy benefits represent between 16%
and 20% of total health care costs, and another 29%
reported pharmacy benefits are more than 21% of total
health plan costs.
"Easy pharmacy network access" and "comprehensive
formulary" were cited as the top strengths of
respondents' pharmacy benefits programs, and "complete
disclosure of manufacturer revenue" and "complete
disclosure of all costs" were cited as major
weaknesses.
Buck's survey report, "Understanding Your Strategies for Coping with the Changing Pharmacy Benefit Landscape," is available for $100 from Buck's Global Survey Resources, 500 Plaza Drive, Secaucus, NJ, 07096-1533, or by calling 800-887-0509, or by ordering online at www.bucksurveys.com .