2021 Managed Healthcare Executive® Pharmacy Survey: Most Effective Ways to Reduce Pharmaceutical Costs
In this part three series, participants give their opinions on the most effective ways to reduce traditional and specialty pharmaceutical costs. MHE's annual pharmacy survey had over 225 respondents. We will be posting the results over the next several days.
Results from our 2021 Pharmacy survey show that there is no big winner when it comes to opinions on the most effective way to rein in drug costs. Answers to the question about the most effective way to reduce costs for traditional and specialty pharmacy costs were pretty evenly distributed when we asked respondents to pick up to three of eight choices.
For traditional pharmacy, expanded use of digital tools (30%), improved price transparency (30%), narrower, simpler formularies (29%), revised benefit design to steer patients to low-cost options (29%) and more aggressive utilization management (28%) were favored by roughly the same proportion of respondents.
For specialty pharmacy, there was a bit more separation of the top picks from the rest of the pack. Most favored was performance-based contracting between payers and prescribers (42%), followed by Medicare price negotiation (36%) and formulary adoption and prescription of biosimilars (35%).
Just over 225 people responded to our online survey between April 5 and May 10.
David Calabrese of OptumRx Talks New Role, Market Insulin Prices and Other Topics 'On His Mind'
April 13th 2023In this month’s episode of the "What's On Your Mind podcast," Peter Wehrwein, managing editor of MHE connects with the now Chief Clinical Officer of OptumRx Integrated Pharmacies, David Calabrese. In this conversation, David touches on his transition in January as OptumRx’s former chief pharmacy officer and market president of health plans and PBMs to his new role as Chief Clinical Officer where he now focuses more on things such as specialty pharmacy to home delivery — with an overall goal of creating whole-patient care. Throughout the conversation, Calabrese also touched on the market’s hot topic of insulin prices and behavioral health services within the OptumRx community, among other topics.
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Upended: Can PBM Transparency Succeed?
March 6th 2024Simmering tensions in the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry have turned into fault lines. The PBMs challenging the "big three" have formed a trade association. Purchaser coalitions want change. The head of the industry's trade group says inherent marketplace friction has spilled over into political friction.
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Briana Contreras, editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, spoke with Nancy Lurker, CEO and president of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals. Nancy shared a bit about EyePoint and how the organization’s innovative therapies are addressing patient needs through eye care, and most importantly, she addressed C-Suite positions like the CEO role. Nancy shared advice for those seeking to reach the CEO level, especially toward women in healthcare and other roles, and what it takes to run a biopharma company.
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The deliberate disconnection of Change Healthcare to ring fence a cyberattack entered its seventh day today. Prescribers are finding ways to get pharmacy claims processed, and UnitedHealth Group says disruption to the dispensing of prescriptions has been minimal. But independent pharmacies want more information and protection from financial consequences from pharmacy benefit managers.
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