Health plans that coordinate their health savings account offerings with banks increase the likelihood that individausl establish and contribute to an HSA account, experts say.

Consumers want information that's personalized and useful to their specific health problem, according to a recent healthcare consumer study from Deloitte.

Drug trend for 2007 was 2%, the lowest year-over-year trend since Medco began tracking it in 1999, according to the company. While the drug cost trend is small in terms of overall healthcare dollars spent, it was at one time rising at a rate more than double the rate of inflation, according to Lon Castle, MD, senior director, department of medical and analytical affairs at Medco.

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.