SCOTTSDALE, AZ--(Marketwire - October 15, 2010) - Employers are effectively controlling drug benefit costs and utilization, according to research findings in the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute's (PBMI) 2010-2011 Prescription Drug Benefit Cost and Plan Design Report. PBMI's employer survey shows the average rate of increase in drug costs was 6.3%.
The 2010 survey was completed by 372 U.S. employers representing almost six million members.
Key findings from the survey include:
- The use of co-insurance benefit structures nearly doubled for all drug tiers from 2009 to 2010
- There was a significant decline in the number of employers offering retiree drug coverage, which declined from 45.9% to 31.5% from the prior year
- The impact of generic medications continues to rise, representing 65.2% of all prescriptions dispensed in the surveyed population
- Employers are just beginning to adopt coverage and reimbursement strategies for genetic testing, with 5.1% of respondents indicating a coverage strategy was already in place
- Employers continue to embrace maintenance supply dispensing at retail, with 58.3% of employers maintaining this supply option
- Pharmacy reimbursement levels continue to decline
The report serves as a valuable reference for examining how employer prescription drug coverage strategies are changing over time.
PBMI gratefully acknowledges the support of Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America (TPNA), Inc. for the provision of a grant to cover costs incurred in the production of this report. TPNA has no access to the individual responses or raw data gathered, nor do any other third parties. This protects the confidentiality of the survey respondents and ensures the independence and objectivity of this report.
Takeda has sponsored publication of the Prescription Drug Benefit Cost and Plan Design Report since 2001. Takeda also has underwritten development of online resources to make research findings easy to access and use in benefit planning. Online resources and print copies of the new report are available at www.pbmi.com.
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