Employers are more than just concerned about the rising costs of prescription drugs—they're ready to stem the tide, according to industry experts.

The enrollment process offers opportunities to engage employees, but the tools themselves are not enough, according to one industry expert.

HEALTHCARE FORECASTERS might assume that because of demographics, heart disease would be a leading cause of increased demand for hospital services—and, therefore, healthcare costs.

One of the most important therapeutic classes according is going to be cancer and transplant. "In fact, its contribution to spending increases over the next three years is definitely underestimated here since our projections are based on pharmacy claims data and a large portion of the spending for cancer treatments is paid through the medical benefit," says Lon Castle, MD, senior director, department of medical and analytical affairs at Medco.

For managed care executives, the first step in lowering costs for specialty drugs is to look at the total specialty spend by combining information from the pharmacy and medical benefits, one expert says.

PBM services add a different dimension to traditional healthcare, promoting increased industry innovation and broader adoption of value-based drug benefit designs.

Medicare is a difficult market to be in and is going to get even more challenging in the next few years, experts say.

Medicare advantage (ma) enrollment reflects the relative maturity of managed care markets generally, and the attractiveness of those markets from economic and demographic standpoints for these plans to operate in, experts say.

Health plans are looking for a more integrated approach to managing specialty therapies so they can effectively and efficiently manage the quality of care for the member, as well as the cost to the plan sponsor, say industry experts.