The recession isn’t over yet and continues to force employers and upper management to clamor for reform that promotes personal wellness and promotes generic versions of specialty drugs for market entry.

According to a new Medco study, 90% of prescription benefit managers witness minimal attention to personal health and increased incidence of chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease as a major impetus to health care costs. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of respondents to the 2009 edition of the “Leading Trends in Rx Plan Management” believe that wellness programs will yield the most savings, especially if workers take it upon themselves to correct self-inflicted instigators of chronic diseases such as obesity and smoking.

“This survey shows that plan sponsors recognize that prevention is key to reducing costs and are looking for approaches that will help employees embrace the concept of wellness, adopt healthier habits, and follow doctors orders when it comes to taking essential medications,” says Tim Wentworth, group president of Medco’s Employer Accounts. “A large percentage of our health care dollars are being spent on treatments for diabetes, cholesterol and hypertension – conditions that in many cases could be better controlled, and even prevented, by changing behaviors.”

The survey conducted by the Healthcare Division of Haldy McIntosh and Associates on behalf of Medco polled 300 plan sponsors with between 500 and 50,000 plus employees in the first quarter of 2009. It gathered reports from the private and public sector and labor unions.

Employers hope to address the proliferation of chronic diseases in their staff by integrating drug and medical data (80%) and adding clinical management programs to their pharmacy benefit to help increase patient safety and control plan costs. After all, obesity-related conditions, for example, cost the U.S. $147 billion in direct medical spending in 2008, cites a recent study published in the journal Health Affairs. The study goes on to reveal that obesity is the single greatest contributor to the country’s diabetes epidemic.

Because of statistics like these, employers are rallying for change in legislation and in their own prescription drug benefits and wellness programs. Further highlights of the survey follow:

• For the second year in a row, plan sponsors perceive specialty medications as the leading driver of prescription drug costs, and 83% seek swift legislative action to bring generic versions of specialty drugs to market. Three-fourths of those polled have found some relief through reduced prices by billing these drugs under the pharmacy benefit instead of the medical benefit.
• Mail order pharmacies improves adherence to essential drug therapies, say 70% of management and nearly half believe that mail-order pharmacists do a better job at identifying adherence problems. This is important because, as another Medco study found, annual health care costs for hypertensive patients using mail order saw a $700 per-patient reduction due to increased adherence to prescribed drug therapy.
• Despite unanimous agreement that generic programs constitute significant cost savings, 62% of respondents consider $4 generics programs at retail pharmacies as solely designed to increase foot traffic, and represent only a limited number of available generic drugs.
• More than 60% of plan sponsors believe that genetic testing should become a routine part of health care, with larger companies leading the pack in covering these tests as nearly half provide coverage, as compared to only 14% of smaller companies.

For more details from the Medco report, visit www.medcohealth.com/9trends.