MedBen Rx Blog
Lower Specialty Drug Costs with MedBen Rx Access Solutions
Employers pay up to 30 times as much for specialty drugs than Medicare does, new research finds. According to the JAMA Health Forum, for the 10 most commonly used specialty drugs, employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) plans paid prices up to 3,350%...
Comparative Effectiveness Silences the Drug Ad Hype
Drug companies spend $6 billion per year on direct-to-consumer ads with the goal of getting patients to ask their doctors to prescribe drugs that, in many instances, cost substantially more but are less effective than their current medications. And with no comparative...
The 2023 MedBen University Season Starts Soon!
The 22nd Season of MedBen University (MBU) will soon be in session! In 2023, MBU will explore current benefit management issues and proven solutions MedBen offers, including: golden pen,notebook,calculator and glasses on black desk Reducing Rx spend...
Why Health Care Costs Will Rise in 2023 – and How You Can Control Them
Even though health care costs have not seen the same rate of inflation as other industries, that’s about to change. Fortunately, MedBen has a variety of inflation-hedging solutions to counter rising costs. As a recent Self-Insurer article notes, health care costs...
PBMs, GoodRx on the Legislative Hot Seat
Pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) are increasingly being called to answer for their questionable business practices at multiple levels of government. On the state level, in recent months: A major PBM has settled with Iowa and at least 14 other states for...
How Do Health Plans Manage High-Cost Drug Spend?
In two recent articles, we touched on the growing prevalence of high-cost drugs, some with price tags in the thousands and even millions of dollars: Drugmakers are raising prices on over 350 unique drugs this month.Innovative gene therapies have emerged that cost as...
Drugmakers Raising Prices on Over 350 Drugs in January
From Reuters: "Drugmakers including Pfizer Inc, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca PLC and Sanofi SA plan to raise prices in the United States on more than 350 unique drugs in early January, according to data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3...
MedBen Rx Has Solutions for Rising Specialty Drug Costs
From earlier this year: “Health plans and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) that manage drug costs… say specialty drugs now account for 50% or greater of the total prescription spending they manage. In some cases, employer clients are seeing specialty costs account...
Pharmaceutical Companies Represent Nearly 2/3rds of Top Health Care Lobbyists
A review of the biggest spenders in health care lobbying by OpenSecrets reveals that, in the leadup to the 2021-22 election cycle, 16 of the top 25 lobbyists were pharmaceutical & health product organizations (see table below). The top health care lobbyist,...
Gene Therapy: Big Benefits at a Big Cost
The Self-Insurer magazine recently examined the emergence of innovative gene therapies that carry substantial benefits… and hefty price tags. The FDA just approved a hemophilia B gene therapy that costs $3.5 million a dose, making it the...
Be Proactive about Biologics’ Growing Popularity
From earlier this year: “The global biologics market is expected to see a 12% growth rate and reach $420.55 billion by 2025, according to a new report by The Business Research Company.” A drug therapy originating from living organisms, biologics is a...
Don’t Be an ATM for Your PBM!
Major pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) use “smoke and mirrors” to make you believe they’re saving you money on prescription drugs: On the one hand, PBMs offer you administrative fee credits – fixed cost reductions that make up just a small...