There’s a growing imperative to manage drug costs.
During the past 25 years, after adjusting for inflation, the per capita spending on prescription drugs has more than tripled – from $361 to $1,147. Prescription drug spending has far outpaced other healthcare costs.
When you factor in the proliferation of high-cost specialty drugs, it becomes even clearer that we are facing a Perfect Storm of rising drug costs. Typically, 1-2% of a patient population is driving around half of total prescription spend. The majority of those patients are using specialty medications, which cost on average $4,500 a month.
These prescription drug trends, especially the growing usage and cost of specialty medications, are putting enormous pressure on benefits plans and their members. Which makes it even more imperative that plan sponsors effectively manage rising drug costs so they can focus on what really matters: keeping their members healthy, happy, and productive.