ST. LOUIS, Oct. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Express Scripts
(NASDAQ: ESRX) released new data today showing significantly
improved clinical outcomes and reduced drug spending for diabetes
-- one of America's deadliest and most costly health
conditions.
In its inaugural year, the Diabetes Care Value®
program, part of the technology-supported, value-based
SafeGuardRxSM platform, reduced diabetes drug spending
by 19 percent - $360 per member per
year – for the more than 800 plan sponsors enrolled in the program,
delivering a total savings of $42.6
million in 2017.
In addition, Express Scripts diabetes specialist pharmacists,
using advanced clinical analytics, improved compliance with
recommended treatment guidelines by starting an additional 15
percent of enrolled patients at risk for heart attack or stroke on
statin therapy. If all Express Scripts plans were to similarly
increase statin use among their members with diabetes for better
cholesterol control, they could prevent an estimated 13,000 heart
attacks over the next 10 years.
"By combining specialized diabetes pharmacy care with benefit
strategies, such as utilization management and quality pharmacy
networks, we are tackling the diabetes dilemma in ways others
simply cannot," said Glen Stettin,
M.D., Express Scripts Chief Innovation Officer. "Our SafeGuardRx
clinical solutions provide the highest level of clinical care and
more affordable healthcare benefits while helping to ensure our
clients, who pay the majority of the cost of treatment, get
the most value from the medicines their members take for this far
too prevalent and devastating condition."
According to Diabetes Dilemma: U.S. Trends in Diabetes
Medication Use, a research report published by Express
Scripts last year, diabetes has been the most expensive traditional
therapy class for our client's pharmacy plans for six consecutive
years, and costing payers about $9,000 more in total medical expenses per person
with diabetes, nearly three times more than those without diabetes.
These costs will continue to escalate as more than 30 million
people in the U.S. currently have diabetes and another 84 million
(one-in-three) are prediabetic.
A Holistic Approach to Diabetes Care
Continuing the
fight to contain costs and enhance clinical care for patients with
diabetes, earlier this year Express Scripts enhanced the Diabetes
Care Value program with two patient engagement tools:
- Active and connected blood sugar monitoring that allows Express
Scripts diabetes pharmacists to track and analyze blood glucose
readings to provide proactive and meaningful patient
interventions.
- The Mango Health mobile platform, powered by Express Scripts,
which combines personalized messaging and reminders, innovative
technology, gamification features and incentive rewards to promote
adherence and adoption of better behaviors that can lead to
improved health.
These advanced capabilities are components of a comprehensive
program that currently leverages a novel quality-based pharmacy
network of more than 10,000 pharmacies nationwide, and
whole-patient clinical consulting and care from Express Scripts
diabetes specialist pharmacists.
SafeGuardRx Solutions
Using data and technology in
innovative ways to facilitate the most appropriate and effective
treatments, provide high-touch clinical support for patients, and
apply value-based payment strategies, SafeGuardRx delivers better
medication adherence, higher therapy completion rates, greater
compliance with clinical guidelines and substantially reduced
wasteful healthcare spending. In addition to diabetes, the current
suite of condition-specific SafeGuardRx solutions address some of
the costliest therapy classes for payers, including cancer,
hepatitis C, high blood cholesterol, inflammatory conditions,
multiple sclerosis, pulmonary conditions and rare diseases.
"By remaining diligent and continuing to innovate around
value-based payment programs for prescription drugs, Express
Scripts is turning theory into practice bringing patients the
access to the clinical care they deserve, while reducing cost,
waste and inefficiencies for payers," Stettin said.
About Express Scripts
Express Scripts is a healthcare
opportunity company. Empowered by our legacy as an industry
innovator, we dare to imagine – and deliver – a better healthcare
system with improved health outcomes and lower costs. From pharmacy
and medical benefits management, to specialty pharmacy care and
everything in between – we uncover opportunities to make healthcare
work better.
Our home base is St. Louis, but
our reach extends to millions of Americans across the nation. We
stand alongside our clients and partners, collaborating to develop
personalized solutions that make a meaningful difference in the
lives of those we serve.
We believe healthcare can do more. We are Champions For
BetterSM.
For more information, visit Lab.Express-Scripts.com or follow
@ExpressScripts on Twitter.
Media Contact:
Jennifer
Luddy
201-269-6402
Jennifer_Luddy@express-scripts.com
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SOURCE Express Scripts