Pharmacy benefits

The U.S. health system is making strides toward value-based care but much of it is still focused on volume, which is detrimental for plan sponsors and employees.

UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s OptumRx unit struck an agreement to ease customers’ access to drugs through Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.’s drugstores, a move to help the business compete with rival pharmacy benefit managers.

Steve Miller, the pharmacy benefit manager’s chief medical officer, addresses the key cost drivers and what the PBM is doing to guard against increases.

Generic drugs are usually significantly cheaper for plan sponsors than brand-name drugs. Here’s a look at 10 drugs coming off patent in 2016. And although the FDA hasn’t yet approved generics for many of the following blockbuster drugs that are coming off patent this year, in most cases there are generics in the pipeline, according to Dickson Data Blog.

Steve Miller, the pharmacy benefit manager’s chief medical officer, addresses the key cost drivers and what the PBM is doing to guard against increases.

Excessive and expensive treatment is at the core of the healthcare cost crisis, says Brian Klepper.

Other countries and some innovative firms here consistently deliver equal or better quality care at dramatically lower cost, betraying the idea that conventional U.S. healthcare is superior or even appropriate.

Price comparison tools available to the public don’t make it easy enough for workers to make informed decisions.

They might, if they had better access to pricing information in the decision-making process, says Frenkel Benefits’ Craig Hasday.

Despite the continued escalation in specialty medication costs, many employers sponsoring self-funded health plans have not yet placed prescription drugs underneath the plan’s stop-loss insurance. Why is that?