A U.S. study released by Buck Consultants indicates that the use of third-party pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) has increased by 10% in the past two years (47% in 2009 to 57% in 2011). With 67% of respondents citing pharmaceutical pricing as “‘highly important ” more and more employers are using PBMs to process and pay […]
A great deal of the potential that has been touted about the impact of lower generic drug prices on the private sector has yet to be realized. This is further evidence that plan sponsor reliance on passive drug plan management is not likely to bear fruit with respect to long-term cost containment. Cubic Health recently […]
Ever-increasing prescription drug prices have generated much discussion about how best to control these escalating costs. However, the results of a recent Aon Hewitt Rapid Response survey suggest that, while there’s been a lot of talk, there has been little action. Even though certain solutions have been available for some time, there are many organizations […]
Canadian companies should ask some tough questions and take a closer look at the way their employee drug plans are being managed or risk further benefit cuts, cost increases and even impacts to their own product or service pricing, according to a new white paper authored by Helen Stevenson. Titled An End to Blank Cheques: […]
It’s no secret that drug costs comprise the largest portion of an employer’s group benefits plan expenditures, but what goes into these costs? That was the topic of this year’s GIPC event, Unravelling Drug Pricing, today in Toronto. There’s no getting around it: most new treatments and preventive measures are more expensive, said Mark Ferdinand, […]
Does your plan require prior authorization for specialty drugs? Take our poll and let us know. As the saying goes, “What goes up, must come down.” In the world of drug benefits, the reverse is also true. It speaks to the balance that occurs when forces are applied to a system with multiple moving parts. […]
The new generic drug pricing changes that have taken place across the country have created some evolving implications for plan sponsors. Not only have these changes led to significant pricing discrepancies across Canada, they have impacted preferred provider arrangements between plans and pharmacy providers, and have impacted drugs that were previously unaffected by pricing changes. […]
Generic drugs represent the only component of Canadian healthcare in which costs are decreasing. On March 29, more than 100 plan sponsors, group insurers and consultants met in Toronto to discuss opportunities for generic drugs to increase cost savings for all healthcare stakeholders. The half-day Value of Generic Drugs Symposium, held at the Fairmount Royal […]
Between 1998 and 2008, the most popular topic of conversation in drug plan management was the brave new world of expensive specialty (i.e. biological) drugs. As everybody knows, the fear was that these revolutionary new therapies would hit plans and drive costs to unsustainable levels. The only problem was that during that period, it never […]
Despite the frenzy the legislation for lower generic drugs caused, leading plan sponsors to think it would equate to lower costs for benefits plans, those beliefs were quickly dispelled by industry professionals that pointed out generics are not widely used in drug plans. Suzanne Lepage, private health plan strategist from Kitchener, Ont. pointed out in […]