Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7837

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Brotman BA.
The price of pharmaceuticals given managed care health insurance membership.
Pharm Pract Manag Q 2000 Jul; 20:(2):16-9

Abstract:

A literature search was conducted to examine the price of pharmaceuticals relative to managed care health insurance membership. The results indicate that managed care membership has impacted price trends for pharmaceuticals significantly. The results also suggest that the pharmaceutical industry is experiencing price pressure from managed care organizations (MCOs). Physicians in the past were the group that normally encouraged the addition of a given drug to formulary lists. The group that appears to now exert pressure on insurers is the patient group. The second response by the drug companies to the formulary list is an incentive to change the status of a drug from prescription only to OTC availability. This change saves the MCO money because it typically does not reimburse patients for OTC drugs.

Keywords:
Drug Costs/trends* Drugs, Generic/economics Health Maintenance Organizations/economics* Health Maintenance Organizations/utilization Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services Preferred Provider Organizations/economics Preferred Provider Organizations/utilization Prescriptions, Drug/economics Regression Analysis United States