It’s no secret that the costs for prescription drugs are skyrocketing. What’s interesting (and disheartening) is that costs are increasing rapidly whether we’re talking about new drugs being introduced into the marketplace (think $85,000-100,000 to treat hepatitis C) or those that have been used for decades or more (digoxin used to cost pennies a pill but today can cost as much as $1.60 per pill). Even some generics, which we expect to cost less, have seen cost increases of 600 percent or more in the last few years.
In addition to rising costs of the drugs themselves, employers are facing a potential wave of increased use of a variety of specialty drugs as more become available. When you do the math (high cost X high utilization), the result has the potential to be overwhelming financially.
If you’re concerned about these and other pharmacy trends (and really, who isn’t concerned?), read our new Benefits Insight & Guidance, entitled A Pharmacy Benefit Forecast for 2015. Then reach out to your Lockton Account Team for help in developing strategies to mitigate the challenges headed your way.