Reference Pricing: "Gross" Invoice Cost for Popular Generic and Brand Prescription Drugs (Volume 251)

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.

How to Determine if Your Company [or Client] is Overpaying

Step #1:  Obtain a price list for generic prescription drugs from your broker, TPA, ASO or PBM every month.

Are Biosimilars the Future of Specialty Pharmacy?

Although there are several different types of biological products, which the FDA notes includes proteins, monoclonal antibodies, and vaccines with little in common. For example, biologic drugs are large molecules typically manufactured from living cells and, therefore, are extremely difficult to produce or reproduce.

In fact, there can be variations of acceptable range within the same manufacturing process because biologics are processed using living cell-based technology and the make of these agents is not easily identifiable.

For this reason, they are also highly sensitive to storage and handling processes and typically have a shorter shelf life than your average oral medications. So, why research, develop, and ultimately manufacturer such complex, sometimes costly medications you might ask?

Tyrone's Commentary:

We've seen this movie before, haven't we? Much like small molecule generic equivalents, biosimilars are a big threat to biologic market share. It just takes time.

Source: Generic Pharmaceutical Association annual savings and access report

Because they are able to effectively treat a variety of medical conditions that previously had limited to no other treatments available, thereby changing the lives of patients with conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and anemia, just to name a few.

[Read More]

Reference Pricing: "Gross" Invoice Cost for Popular Generic and Brand Prescription Drugs (Volume 250)

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.

How to Determine if Your Company [or Client] is Overpaying

Step #1:  Obtain a price list for generic prescription drugs from your broker, TPA, ASO or PBM every month.

Pennsylvania's Auditor General Demands PBM Contracting Transparency

Pennsylvania Auditor General, Eugene Depasquale, released a report discussing the role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). The report, “Bringing Transparency and Accountability to Drug Pricing,” reviews PBM pricing practices with a critical eye.

If your pharmacy benefits management process doesn't
resemble the Auditor General's, blow it up. Here's how!

The Auditor General makes ten recommendations he believes will improve PBM pricing transparency, stabilize reimbursements to pharmacies, and ultimately lower the cost of prescription drugs for Pennsylvania residents.

1) To ensure taxpayer dollars are being handled effectively and efficiently, the general assembly should immediately pass legislation allowing the state to perform a full-scale annual review or audit of subcontracts with pharmacy benefit managers.

2) To better control costs, Pennsylvania DHS should consider directly managing its Medicaid prescription drug benefits instead of contracting with managed care organizations to do so.

3) The general assembly should pass legislation that increases transparency into PBM pricing practices.

4) So the state pays only for services PBMs render, the general assembly should pass legislation requiring a flat-fee pricing model for compensating PBMs.

5) Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services should add “good steward” language to all Medicaid-related contracts.

Hmmm...looks like someone has been reading this blog. Get the full Auditor General's report here.

Reference Pricing: "Gross" Invoice Cost for Popular Generic and Brand Prescription Drugs (Volume 249)

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.

How to Determine if Your Company [or Client] is Overpaying

Step #1:  Obtain a price list for generic prescription drugs from your broker, TPA, ASO or PBM every month.

Ninety-Two Percent of Self-Insured Companies Lack a Formalized Pharmacy Benefits Management Process

Click Here To Get Your Plan

This one is the proverbial head-scratcher. Nine out of ten self-insured companies do not have a formalized pharmacy benefits management process. The results from our phone poll were startling, to say the least. During Q1-Q3 2018, I asked the TransparentRx sales staff to pose a question to small, medium and large self-insured employers.

In the qualification stage of our sales process, we asked employers, "do you have a written plan to procure, monitor and evaluate your pharmacy benefits management service?" Of the 1017 self-insured employers who responded, here is what they shared with us.

For the process to be considered "formalized" each employer had to have a written plan. If the employer did not have a written plan we considered them not to have a formalized process. We could've easily stopped there as 81% of employers did not have a written plan.

Reference Pricing: "Gross" Invoice Cost for Popular Generic and Brand Prescription Drugs (Volume 248)

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.

How to Determine if Your Company [or Client] is Overpaying

Step #1:  Obtain a price list for generic prescription drugs from your broker, TPA, ASO or PBM every month.

CVS Health launches "New" Guaranteed Net Cost Pricing Model

Source:  Pharmacy Benefits Management Institute 

Under the new model, CVS Health will return 100% of drug rebates to employer-sponsored groups and at some point in the future government health programs. The good news is this moves the entire industry one step closer to radical transparency. The bad news is CVS Health admits it hoodwinked all those clients it sold pass-through arrangements. Those so-called pass-through agreements were nothing more than fee-for-service [opaque] pricing models disguised as pass-through contracts.

It's safe to assume Caremark's (CVS Health's PBM) gross margins will grow next year or worst case remains flat. Shareholders wouldn't have it any other way. So it begs the question, "how?" Here are a few ideas:

"Don't Miss" Webinar: How to Slash PBM Service Costs, up to 50%, Without Changing Vendors or Benefit Levels

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.

"Thank you Tyrone. Nice job, good information." David Stoots, AVP

"Thank you! Awesome presentation." Mallory Nelson, PharmD

"Thank you Tyrone for this informative meeting." David Wachtel, VP

"...Great presentation! I had our two partners on the presentation as well. Very informative." Nolan Waterfall, Agent/Benefits Specialist

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. maximum allowable cost (MAC)
• Why mail-order and preferred pharmacy networks may not be the great deal you were sold

See you Tuesday December 11 at 2 PM ET!

Sincerely,
TransparentRx
Tyrone D. Squires, MBA  
3960 Howard Hughes Pkwy., Suite 500  
Las Vegas, NV 89169  
866-499-1940 Ext. 201

P.S.  Yes, it's recorded. I know you're busy ... so register now and we'll send you the link to the session recording as soon as it's ready.

Union takes to task pharmaceutical manufacturer on a $6,000,000 per year specialty drug

Click to read the entire letter to POTUS

On Monday, November 26, 2018, the Trump administration proposed a set of strategies to lower pharmaceutical costs in Medicare Part D. As set out in the proposed rule, the plan has three major new provisions:

1) Providing Part D plans with more flexibility to manage protected classes

2) Updating existing e-prescribing systems to make patients’ costs visible when a prescription is ordered

3) Requiring pharmacy price concessions for drugs at the point of sale

On the heels of this proposal, I want to share with you a letter written by Boilermakers National Health & Welfare Fund (BNF) to POTUS which clearly illustrates why the proposed changes are necessary. I am posting the letter in its entirety with permission from BNF's COO, Lori Jasperson.

In short, BNF has one family on Strensiq, a new specialty drug manufactured by Alexion Pharmaceuticals, with a projected price tag of $6,000,000.00 per year! Rather than take that price lying down, BNF decided to get the CEO of Alexion on the phone.

In my hood, we have a euphemism for this sort of action "pressure bursts pipes" no pun intended Lori. Read the letter and the result of those phone conversations by clicking here.