Mercer Launches Technology Solution for Specialty Drugs

Mercer, a business of Marsh McLennan, has launched Mercer SelectRx, a technology solution for employers that aims to lower costs of specialty drugs.

SelectRx leverages Free Market Health’s loud-based technology platform to drive competition among specialty pharmacies for high-cost specialty medications. Specialty prescriptions are directed to the platform, which searches through a curated network of specialty pharmacies. The pharmacy offering the lowest price on the approved specialty medication is chosen to dispense it, without impact to the drug rebates provided by pharmaceutical manufacturers to the employers and without disruption to an employer’s relationship with its PBM.

“Employers are increasingly asking for a new way to manage their specialty pharmacy spend while ensuring employees receive quality care,” Joe Cardosi, founder and CEO of Free Market Health, said in a press release. “This strategic alliance with Mercer furthers our mission of efficiently delivering lower-cost, lifesaving, and life-altering medications into the hands of more patients across the country.”

Free Market Health launched in 2021 as a healthcare technology company that aims to helps payers manage specialty drug costs. The company’s platform currently manages more than 200,000 specialty drug claims annually through its partnerships with payers.

Mercer executives said cost savings will vary, but they said employers and employees could save up to 10% off specialty drug spend.

Prescription medications have been the fastest-growing component of employee health benefit costs for years, with specialty drugs rising by more than 10% in 2023, according to Mercer’s 2023 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans published in November 2023.