This document is updated weekly, but why is it important? Healthcare marketers are aggressively pursuing new revenue streams to augment lower reimbursements provided under PPACA. Prescription drugs, particularly specialty, are key drivers in the growth strategies of PBMs, TPAs and MCOs pursuant to health care reform.

The costs shared here are what the pharmacy actually pays; not AWP, MAC or WAC. The bottom line; payers must have access to actual acquisition costs or AAC. Apply this knowledge to hold PBMs accountable and lower plan expenditures for stakeholders.

Always include a semi-annual market check in your PBM contract language. Market checks provide each payer the ability, during the contract, to determine if better pricing is available in the marketplace compared to what the client is currently receiving.

When better pricing is discovered the contract language should stipulate the client be indemnified. Do not allow the PBM to limit the market check language to a similar size client, benefit design and/or drug utilization. In this case, the market check language is effectually meaningless.

This document is updated weekly, but why is it important? Healthcare marketers are aggressively pursuing new revenue streams to augment lower reimbursements provided under PPACA. Prescription drugs, particularly specialty, are key drivers in the growth strategies of PBMs, TPAs and MCOs pursuant to health care reform.

The costs shared here are what the pharmacy actually pays; not AWP, MAC or WAC. The bottom line; payers must have access to actual acquisition costs or AAC. Apply this knowledge to hold PBMs accountable and lower plan expenditures for stakeholders.

Always include a semi-annual market check in your PBM contract language. Market checks provide each payer the ability, during the contract, to determine if better pricing is available in the marketplace compared to what the client is currently receiving.

When better pricing is discovered the contract language should stipulate the client be indemnified. Do not allow the PBM to limit the market check language to a similar size client, benefit design and/or drug utilization. In this case, the market check language is effectually meaningless.

How many businesses do you know want to cut their revenues in half? That’s why traditional pharmacy benefit managers don’t offer radical transparency and instead opt for hidden cash flow opportunities such as rebate masking. Want to learn more?

Here is what some participants have said about the webinar.

A snapshot of what you will learn during this 30 minute webinar:

• Hidden cash flows in the PBM Industry such as formulary steering, rebate masking and differential pricing
• How to calculate cost of pharmacy benefit manager services or CPBMS
• Specialty pharmacy cost-containment strategies
• The financial impact of actual acquisition cost (AAC) vs. effective acquisition cost (EAC)
• Why mail-order and preferred pharmacy networks may not be the great deal you were sold

It is well-known that specialty products are a major driver of prescription drug spending, a trend that is projected to continue well into the future. The new Vizient Drug Price Forecast suggests that although drug costs are projected to increase by 7.35%, specialty pharmacies can help bring spending down even further. Here’s a look at how much these specialty drug categories are estimated to increase by in 2018, according to the report.

1. Antineoplastic Drugs
The report found that the cost of these drugs, which are commonly used to treat patients with cancer, will increase 4.96% in the next year.

2. Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs (DMARDs)
The authors said that DMARDs will be the largest driver of cost increases in 2018. This drug class is projected to skyrocket 11.95%. Due to the prevalence of DMARD use, this uptick in costs may have a significant impact on overall spending.

3. Immunomodulatory Agents
This class of drugs is used to treat patients with serious and debilitating conditions, such as Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis. The cost of immunomodulatory drugs is projected to increase 8.93% in 2018, according to the study.

4. Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)
Although HCV antiviral drugs have driven a majority of specialty spending over the past few years, it may not be the case in 2018. The cost of these treatments is only projected to increase by 2.02%, likely due to the emergence of competitors and lower cost options.

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This document is updated weekly, but why is it important? Healthcare marketers are aggressively pursuing new revenue streams to augment lower reimbursements provided under PPACA. Prescription drugs, particularly specialty, are key drivers in the growth strategies of PBMs, TPAs and MCOs pursuant to health care reform.

The costs shared here are what the pharmacy actually pays; not AWP, MAC or WAC. The bottom line; payers must have access to actual acquisition costs or AAC. Apply this knowledge to hold PBMs accountable and lower plan expenditures for stakeholders.

Always include a semi-annual market check in your PBM contract language. Market checks provide each payer the ability, during the contract, to determine if better pricing is available in the marketplace compared to what the client is currently receiving.

When better pricing is discovered the contract language should stipulate the client be indemnified. Do not allow the PBM to limit the market check language to a similar size client, benefit design and/or drug utilization. In this case, the market check language is effectually meaningless.

Recently, Sen Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA), introduced the Helping Ensure Low-income Patients have Access to Care and Treatment (HELP ACT) as an effort to close loopholes in the 340B drug discount program. This bill would also hold hospitals accountable for passing savings on to patients, according to a press release.

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Under the current 340B program, hospitals or covered entities are reimbursed for prescription drugs at a higher rate but are not required to pass the profits on to patients. The dramatic growth of participation in the program has resulted in higher overall costs within the supply chain, some argue.

“The 340B program is an important resource for hospitals serving low-income areas,” Dr Cassidy said. “But too often the program’s discounts are used to pad hospitals’ bottom lines instead of helping disadvantaged patients afford their treatments. This bill will increase transparency and accountability and help ensure these discounts reach patients.”

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Last year, the FDA approved a groundbreaking total of 1027 generic drugs. The FDA’s latest fiscal year 2017 activities report reveal that the agency has approved more abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) in 2017 than any other year. The 763 approvals (927 approvals and tentative approvals) is 112 more generic approvals than the previous year, 271 more than 2015, and 354 more than in 2014. Meanwhile, the number of complete responses decreased in 2017, from 1,725 in 2016 to 1,603 in 2017.

Tyrone’s Commentary:  For every 1% increase in GDR (generic dispense rate) final cost to the plan sponsor decreases by as much as 2%. The national GDR average hovers at 89.5%. So, if a plan sponsor is looking to cut costs and its GDR is below the national average they would be wise to start here.

The total number of ANDAs received by FDA also significantly outpaced all prior years as 1,292 were received, which is 439 more than the total ANDAs received last year. In terms of first generics, referring to the first competitors for their reference products, FDA tallied a total of 54 approvals in 2017 as of September 30, which compares with 73 total approvals in 2016; FDA counts first generic approvals on the calendar year rather than the fiscal year.

The increase in ANDA approvals and decline in rejections for the latest fiscal year is a result of nearly 1,000 new employees whom FDA was able to hire because of the first Generic Drug User Fee Amendments (GDUFA). The second iteration of GDUFA, which was renewed last summer, took effect on October 1.

Three states have introduced bills that would authorize generic drug manufacturers to promote off-label uses for their medications as long as the information provided is correct, STAT reported. Arizona was the first state to enact a similar law. The proposed laws come during a time in which the FDA is under pressure to loosen legislations surrounding off-label promotion of drugs, according to the article.

This document is updated weekly, but why is it important?  Healthcare marketers are aggressively pursuing new revenue streams to augment lower reimbursements provided under PPACA. Prescription drugs, particularly specialty, are key drivers in the growth strategies of PBMs, TPAs and MCOs pursuant to health care reform.

The costs shared here are what the pharmacy actually pays; not AWP, MAC or WAC. The bottom line; payers must have access to actual acquisition costs or AAC. Apply this knowledge to hold PBMs accountable and lower plan expenditures for stakeholders.

Always include a semi-annual market check in your PBM contract language. Market checks provide each payer the ability, during the contract, to determine if better pricing is available in the marketplace compared to what the client is currently receiving.

When better pricing is discovered the contract language should stipulate the client be indemnified. Do not allow the PBM to limit the market check language to a similar size client, benefit design and/or drug utilization. In this case, the market check language is effectually meaningless.

This document is updated weekly, but why is it important?  Healthcare marketers are aggressively pursuing new revenue streams to augment lower reimbursements provided under PPACA. Prescription drugs, particularly specialty, are key drivers in the growth strategies of PBMs, TPAs and MCOs pursuant to health care reform.

The costs shared here are what the pharmacy actually pays; not AWP, MAC or WAC. The bottom line; payers must have access to actual acquisition costs or AAC. Apply this knowledge to hold PBMs accountable and lower plan expenditures for stakeholders.

Always include a semi-annual market check in your PBM contract language. Market checks provide each payer the ability, during the contract, to determine if better pricing is available in the marketplace compared to what the client is currently receiving.

When better pricing is discovered the contract language should stipulate the client be indemnified. Do not allow the PBM to limit the market check language to a similar size client, benefit design and/or drug utilization. In this case, the market check language is effectually meaningless.

Click to Learn More

“This has been a year of finger-pointing,” said Steven Pearson, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, a nonprofit organization that receives funding from insurance and drug companies. “They’re flooding the zone — with ‘they’ being pharma — with efforts to diffuse and deflect the focus on their role in drug pricing. Part of the policy challenge is they have a point.”

PBMs are for-profit companies that negotiate drug price discounts on behalf of insurers and employers. They include giant companies like Express Scripts Holding and CVS Health. They make money from fees paid by insurers and employers and by taking a cut of the rebates they negotiate. Drug companies have argued that the need to give larger and larger rebates to PBMs is what’s driving the list prices of drugs up.

Tyrone’s Commentary:

Recently, I had a conversation with a representative from a large biologic drug manufacturer about the gross-to-net bubble. It had introduced a new pricing strategy for a handful of specialty drugs which eliminated rebates to PBMs. To their disbelief, the pricing strategy wasn’t received as well as they had hoped. Consequently, the drugmaker reverted back to paying rebates in some cases. 

One might surmise that all of the resistance came from PBMs and they would be wrong. To the drugmakers surprise, some of the push back came from third-party payers. That’s correct some third-party payers preferred the higher list price with rebates as opposed to the lower price without rebates!

Do these plan sponsors consider rebate dollars to be “free” money? It sort of reminds me of the person in the casino bragging about how they won $1000 on the slots but fails to mention they spent $1200 to win the $1000. Rebates most often lead to higher list and net prices to the plan sponsor. 

Because rebates artificially inflate the price of prescription drugs, the person or team making the decision to accept or pass on rebates should be most interested in their company’s long-term growth and not self-preservation.

The PBMs say they typically pass along 90 percent of the savings they negotiate to customers, point to data showing no link between drug price growth and rebates — and point out drug companies are the one raising prices.

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