Healthcare benefits

Walgreens is being hit by its withdrawal from the Express Scripts Inc pharmacy network and by a much-weaker-than-expected flu season, leading it to temper its expectations for the number of prescriptions it will fill this year.

Can you imagine a world where the “new norm” required insurers and providers to disclose what they charge upfront? Read as Mark Gaunya, president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Underwriters, shares two specific messages he took to the Hill at the Cap Conference and the outcome.

[IMGCAP(1)] NEW YORK | Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:42am EST (Reuters) - When your health insurance provider denies an experimental treatment or a high-cost drug, how much are you willing to pay for the care you believe you need? Barby Ingle, a former cheerleading and dance coach at Washington University who now lives in a Phoenix suburb, has been forced to face this question. …

Express Scripts’ clients, including employers, have seen minimal disruption since Walgreens left its network earlier this month, says Brian Henry, ESI’s senior director of public affairs. In this Q&A, he sits down with EBN to discuss what efforts the company has made to make the transition easier since Walgreens announced last June it would be leaving.

Pharmacy benefits manager CVS Caremark has agreed to pay $5 million to settle an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission that it overcharged seniors and taxpayers in the Medicare prescription drug program. The FTC also announced it has concluded its investigation of the company.

Walgreens is on the offensive this month, informing both employers and employees that it’s no longer part of the Express Scripts network. Kermit Crawford, president of Walgreens’ pharmacy, health and wellness business, recently sat down with EBN to discuss how the company plans to move ahead.

Walgreens is going through "the worst" part of not being in Express Scripts Inc.'s network and, while the transition is difficult now, the drugstore should rebound as the year progresses, its top pharmacy executive said on Monday.

Walgreens said last Friday it will increase staffing at its call centers and offer discounts as it tries to hang onto customers once it stops filling prescriptions for Express Scripts Inc. members.

ts Inc. on Jan. 1, 2012, and its stance suggests that the odds of the drugstore making up with the pharmacy benefits manager before the end of the year are remote.

After decades in relative obscurity, a legal doctrine that holds corporate officers liable for company wrongdoing is finding its way back into some high-profile health care prosecutions.

The chief executive officers of Medco Health Solutions Inc and Express Scripts Inc will tell a U.S. Senate subcommittee that merging the pharmacy benefit managers will wring out wasteful spending and lower the cost of medicine, according to a government filing.

Obese adults in the United States use a number of prescription drug types more frequently than normal-weight adults, says a new study from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CVS has told some doctors in Florida, the nation's pill mill capital, that its retail pharmacies will no longer fill prescriptions they write for some potent and addictive drugs, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

A national coalition of pharmacists and pharmacy owners announced last week a public information campaign to expose the unjustifiably high prices of prescription drugs set by pharmacy benefit managers, the unregulated, multibillion dollar industry that controls prescription health plans for more than 200 million Americans.

As employee benefit budgets remain tight, employers are adopting plan design changes that reduce drug benefit coverage and improve pricing, according to the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute.

Twenty-five percent of employers have little or no understanding of specialty pharmacy and 53% have only a moderate understanding of this challenging benefit according to a new survey released by the Midwest Business Group on Health.

Pharmacy-related wasteful spending topped $403 billion in 2010, up from $163 billion in 2009, according to the 2010 Drug Trends Report by Express Scripts. Between 2010 and 2014, estimates put the figure at more than $1.2 trillion.

It was a busy summer in the pharmacy benefits management business. First, in June, pharmacy chain Walgreens announced it would withdraw from Express Scripts' pharmacy provider network starting Jan. 1, 2012. Walgreens said the poor contract terms Express Scripts was offering - including prescription reimbursement rates below the industry average - made it impossible for the pharmacy chain to continue its relationship with the PBM.

It’s been a little over two months since pharmacy chain Walgreens announced it would be leaving Express Scripts’ pharmacy provider network. Kermit Crawford, president of Walgreens’ pharmacy, health and wellness business, sat down with EBN recently to discuss his company’s position.

With two Harry Potter fans still living at home, our family couldn't wait to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter last week while on vacation in Orlando, Fla. Our family of four "muggles" whizzed around on broomsticks, played Quidditch and drank delicious butter beers in this land of magic and illusion at Universal Studios.