Pharmacy

Cost management attributes compared

Cost management attributes compared

OTC and generics help the cause

Group purchasing organizations bring efficiencies

Viral illnesses are notoriously difficult to treat. There are a host of antibiotics to fight bacteria, but until recently, most viruses were treated with over-the-counter analgesics plus supportive measures such as bed rest and fluids.

His story sounds like it's taken from a Norman Rockwell painting. President of RxEOB, Robert Oscar, RPh, grew up living next door to a gentleman who owned a local drugstore.

At Premera Blue Cross of Washington state, a simple brown bag might hold the solution to avoiding adverse drug reactions for patients taking multiple medications.

Forward-thinking plans that leverage knowledge to manage their pharmacy costs will see better returns on their investments, says Jan Berger, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer for Caremark Rx Inc., a pharmaceutical services company based in Nashville.

April FDA Pipeline

Biologics evaluated for cost effectiveness.

Parkinson's Disease is a chronic, progressive neurological disorder that occurs when neurons in the part of the brain that controls movement start to degenerate. This leads to a shortage of the neurotransmitter dopamine, causing characteristic movement problems.

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are wading through yet another controversy, this one pitting them against retail pharmacies, who claim that mandatory mail service is stifling competition or simply put, stealing away many of the pharmacies' customers. Mail-order prescriptions, however, have long been a cost-saving strategy promoted by PBMs and requested by their employer clients.

Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began smiling last month. They were watching the letters and applications roll in from MCOs--;a sign that seniors will be able to obtain care from a large number of local PPOs (preferred provider organizations) beginning next January.

Patients who receive these added pharmacist services place a very high value on them.

About three years ago I asked a large group of health plan executives if they knew how much they spend annually for ?specialty pharmacy? products. Few could respond, and virtually none had launched any efforts to control the then unknown rapid increase in these costs.Today, this is not the case.

JUST A FEW YEARS AGO, a three-tier formulary was a novelty; now more and more health plans and employers have introduced the design into their pharmacy benefits. The growth in the number of workers covered under a three-tier design has grown from 27% to 63% between 2000 and 2003.

March DTR Analysis: Drug Coverage

BREAST CANCER is the most common cancer found in women, and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women. More than 200,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are diagnosed in the United States each year, approximately 77% of them in women over 50 years of age.

JUST A FEW YEARS AGO, a three-tier formulary was a novelty; now more and more health plans and employers have introduced the design into their pharmacy benefits. The growth in the number of workers covered under a three-tier design has grown from 27% to 63% between 2000 and 2003.

New approvals and actions in brief

With Injectable Claims, the root problem in the submission process is that payers cannot read NDC numbers on CMS 1500 forms, and there is no process in place to require providers to include such a data element.

Paying physicians for performance is one of managed care's hottest trends.

New entities and actions in brief

Sexually Transmitted infections (STIs) such as syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes and chlamydia are a major health concern in the United States.

A 19% to 23% Annual Drug cost trend during the past three years was a wake-up call for Virginia Premier Health Plan, a Medicaid HMO in Richmond, Va. Relying on the services of the same pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) since the plan's inception in 1995, Virginia Premier sought a new PBM to bring costs into control. That role was filled by PerformRx, a PBM product offered by Philadelphia-based AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan.