Healthcare benefits

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.

Expensive new cancer drugs, treating increasing numbers of patients, could drive cancer drug spending by as much as 15% a year through 2013, according to the 2011 Medco Drug Trend Report, which tracks drug utilization and spending.

UnitedHealth Group is pushing into managing pharmacy benefits, bucking a trend among U.S. health insurers and threatening the dominance of the three largest companies that help negotiate drug pricing.

Chief financial officers at some of the nation's largest banks and financial services firms are downright bullish on the U.S. economy's overall outlook but nagging concerns about health care reform and the uncertainty of those costs are tempering their optimism.

Medco Health Solutions Inc. will lose a major pharmacy benefit contract to CVS Caremark Corp. starting next year, sending Medco shares down almost 11% and CVS up nearly 4% Friday.

Expensive new cancer drugs, treating increasing numbers of patients, could drive up cancer drug spending by as much as 15% a year through 2013, according to the newly released 2011 Medco Drug Trend Report, which tracks drug utilization and spending.

Electronic prescriptions among U.S. office-based prescribers increased 71% to 326 million in 2010, compared with 190 million the previous year, according to an annual progress report from e-prescribing network vendor Surescripts.

U.S. spending growth on prescription drugs slowed to 2.3% in 2010, the second lowest level in 55 years, according to a report by consulting firm IMS Health.

The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a group of large pharmaceutical companies cannot be sued by a California county for allegedly overcharging for prescription drugs in violation of federal law.

California's insurance regulator has thrown its weight behind a lawsuit accusing Bristol Myers Squibb Co of dishing out kickbacks to doctors who prescribe its drugs.

Prices for prescription drugs rose at a faster rate than costs for other medical goods and services over the last four years, according to a new government report.