Magellan Rx Management Pioneers Novel Drug Wastage Program, Savings Exceed $46 Million in First Year, While Promoting High Qu...
June 18 2019 - 6:30AM
Business Wire
Magellan Rx Management, the pharmacy benefit management (PBM)
division of Magellan Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGLN), has launched an
innovative solution to control spend for high-cost infusible drugs,
while promoting high quality care for members. Payers are often
faced with challenges like limited vial size options and
availability that can lead to excessive spend in categories such as
oncology and autoimmune conditions. The Magellan Rx drug wastage
program leverages prior authorization and dosing protocols, in
collaboration with providers, to identify clinically-appropriate
opportunities to reduce waste.
Since the drug wastage program launched in early 2018,
participating health plans have saved over $46 million and savings
continue to grow. This reduction in waste is also critical to
improving the efficiency of healthcare throughout the United States
and is a key component to providing high quality care.
Effective Strategies to Combat Expensive Drug Wastage
When a portion of a medication is unused and discarded due to
vial size limitations, payers are billed for product that wasn’t
actually administered to the patient. Depending on the drug, this
can equate to tens of thousands of dollars wasted per patient over
the course of treatment. Drug wastage is an established problem,
especially in oncology where research has estimated that nearly $3
billion is wasted annually in cancer medicines that are discarded.1
High-cost medications used to treat autoimmune conditions such as
rheumatoid arthritis can also contribute to substantial drug
wastage. Given the top five Commercial medical benefit drugs by
spend fall within the oncology, oncology support, or autoimmune
categories2, there is an opportunity to leverage drug wastage
strategies to combat rising drug spend.
“It is imperative for payers and patients to be aware of these
market dynamics and medical benefit drug spend and trend—which,
historically, has gone unmanaged—in order to implement timely
strategies that will mitigate escalating drug costs,” said Steve
Cutts, senior vice president and general manager, specialty. “At
Magellan Rx, we equip our customers with the knowledge to make
better decisions and provide clinically-appropriate interventions
for their members directed at reducing drug waste, resulting in
significant dollars saved for the plan as well as downstream
reductions in member cost share.”
Clinical pharmacists at Magellan Rx teamed up with expert key
opinion leaders and health plan customers to develop and implement
a program that identifies opportunities to reduce drug wastage,
targeting high-cost medications. Once identified, providers are
given the option to prescribe a clinically-equivalent dose that
would minimize the amount of drug waste. Provider validation has
been excellent to date, with nearly 50 percent of providers
agreeing to the use of more efficient vials.
For over 14 years, Magellan Rx has delivered cost-effective and
leading-edge strategies for medical benefit drug management,
offering flexible solutions that can also operate outside of the
traditional payer-PBM relationship. Health plans can plug in to the
extensive clinical expertise and experience at Magellan Rx by
delegating specialty and medical drug management services while
retaining a separate PBM. Through innovative, targeted initiatives
like the drug wastage program, combined with other clinical
solutions such as utilization management, site of service, and
biosimilar management, Magellan Rx helps customers reduce their
drug spend for highly complex and costly medical benefit drugs
while promoting high quality care for their members.
“We are focused on reducing cost of care while maintaining a
high quality of care for our members,” said Scott McClelland, vice
president of commercial and specialty pharmacy programs at Florida
Blue. “That’s why we collaborate with Magellan Rx to find
solutions, like the drug waste prevention program, that help curb
rising specialty spend on the medical benefit. The success of this
partnership has helped us save money for our members while ensuring
they get the care they need.”
For more on trends in medical drug management, get the latest
updates from the Magellan Rx Report Spring 2019 Edition.
1. Harris, Gardiner. “Waste in Cancer Drugs Costs $3 Billion a
Year, a Study Says.” The New York Times 1 Mar. 2016. Web. 16 April
2019.
2. 2018 Magellan Rx Management Medical Pharmacy Trend ReportTM,
©2019.
About Magellan Rx Management: Magellan Rx Management, a
division of Magellan Health, Inc., is a full-service,
next-generation pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) that helps our
customers and members solve complex pharmacy challenges by
connecting them to the people, technology, and information they
need to make smarter healthcare decisions. As experts in managing
specialty spend both on the prescription and medical benefit, we
are energized by discovering new and better ways to deliver
solutions in today’s complex and rapidly-evolving healthcare
environment, leading people to live healthier, more vibrant
lives.
About Magellan Health: Magellan Health, Inc., a Fortune
500 company, is a leader in managing the fastest growing, most
complex areas of health, including special populations, complete
pharmacy benefits and other specialty areas of healthcare. Magellan
supports innovative ways of accessing better health through
technology, while remaining focused on the critical personal
relationships that are necessary to achieve a healthy, vibrant
life. Magellan's customers include health plans and other managed
care organizations, employers, labor unions, various military and
governmental agencies and third-party administrators. For more
information, visit MagellanHealth.com.
(MGLN-GEN)
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190618005318/en/
Media: Lilly Ackley, ackleyl@magellanhealth.com, (860)
507-1923
Investors: Joe Bogdan, jbogdan@magellanhealth.com, (860)
507-1910
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