Pharmacy in a Consumer Driven Health Plan

Pharmacy benefits are an important component within a Consumer Driven plan. There is no other benefit that offers as much impact on cost and delivers as much member control as pharmacy benefits. In fact, a consumer based pharmacy program, is an excellent start in a CDHP implementation strategy. Either offered along side a high deductible health plan, or as a stand-alone benefit with an HRA program, the ConsumerDrivenRx.com program will provide a solid foundation for any CDHP initiatives.

Pharmacy benefits have a great impact in a CDHP:

"Recent analyses of benefit design changes provide some insight into how CDHPs could affect patient utilization of drugs and other services. While most published studies have been too short to capture longer-term effects on health outcomes, most have documented both a shift in utilization toward lower-priced therapies¹ (particularly generics)² and an overall fall in use as patients have elected to forego prescribed medication³. "

"As expected, consumer-directed plans have shown positive results in motivating Generic drug use. It's an easy win as generic drugs are generally an underutilized alternative. The director of a top health benefit consultancy firm typically sees pharmacy spending drop by as much as 15% in the first year and attributes this entirely to a switch to generic medication. On large scale, this can result in a large cost savings for health plans - with important and potentially negative implications for the manufacturers of branded products.⁴ "