MedBen Rx Blog
While Titans Battle Over Drug Costs, MedBen Rx Offers Solutions
A recent high-profile disagreement between Walmart and pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) CVS Caremark exemplifies the friction between pharmacies and PBMs about prescription pricing... and the power that PBMs possess to influence drug costs. MedBen Rx was designed to...
Fight Back Against New Year’s Drug Price Increases
New year, higher drug prices. According to The Wall Street Journal, a representative analysis of major pharmaceutical companies found that the prices of their brand name and generic drugs have risen by an average of 6.3% in 2019 – modest compared to previous years,...
AWP Smoke and Mirrors
Drug pricing can be a confusing business… and much of the confusion stems from a drug’s average wholesale price, or AWP. On the surface, the AWP might seem to be… well, the average wholesale price or the average price of a drug. But the price to who? As...
MedBen Rx Tackles Brand-Name Increases
Modern Healthcare recently highlighted the growing disparity between brand-names and generics in relation to prescription drug spending. A new study finds that while total spending on generic drugs has declined, branded prescription drug spending continues to rise. In...
The Clear Solution to Rx Spending Trends
A New York Times article examines the dramatic rise in U.S. prescription drug costs over the past two decades. American drug spending was once on par with other wealthy countries, but between 1997 and 2007 our drug spending tripled... and took off again in 2013. How...
Generic Drugs: Effective and Cost-Efficient
As the prescribing of generic drugs has become more commonplace, most consumers have come to see that these medications work just as well as their pricier band-name equivalents. Indeed, when a generic alternative is available, MedBen clients see a 98% average...
MedBen Rx Solutions Put Transparency Up Front
In an effort to improve drug pricing transparency, the Department of Health and Human Services recently released a proposal requiring drug companies to include their list prices in consumer ads. But MedBen already provides far more transparent Rx solutions. Drug...
MedBen Fights Back Against PBM Spread Pricing
Spread pricing is a little-discussed aspect of prescription drug pricing, but its impact on pharmacy plan costs can be huge… and it’s why MedBen has responded with new pharmacy programs designed to remove spread pricing from the cost equation altogether. Simply...
PBMs, PSAs, and Your Pharmacy Costs
To people outside the health care industry, the role of the pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) can be a bit unclear. Simply stated, PBMs act as intermediaries between insurers (or, in the case of self-funded plans, employers), drug companies, pharmacies, and consumers....
“New” Drug Pricing Tools? Not for MedBen
A Managed Healthcare Executive article spotlights "New Drug Pricing Tools Could Save Money" -- among them, a recently launched "real-time benefits tool" that shows out-of-pocket costs for medications based on a patient's plan benefits. Sound like a great idea... which...
MedBen Rx: Lessons in Savings and Transparency
A recent Forbes.com headline refers to U.S. prescription drug pricing practices as "Lessons in Obfuscation." Unlike most products that have clearly defined prices, prescription drugs start with an acquisition cost paid by the pharmacy, which it then inflates and...
MedBen Rx Site Offers Two Unique Saving Solutions
Because prescription drug costs continue to play an increasingly large role in health care spending growth, MedBen has been working overtime to find saving solutions. Recently, we developed not one, but two new pharmacy programs to help clients lower their Rx...