Memorial Day was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the war. By the 20th century, Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died while in the military service.
(Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day; Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving, while Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans.)
BidRx (www.bidrx.com) is a website built by pharmacists that links consumers with pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies, so consumers can make better decisions when purchasing prescription drugs. BidRx provides the information needed to identify the best value drug; then pharmacies compete for filling prescriptions. Consumers can
Employers can use the site to help communicate the true cost of prescriptions. Employees see the prescriptions’ maximum price before bids (a discounted price), alternative prescriptions with discounted prices, and competitive bids (even lower discounted prices). Employees can use the site to lower drug costs.
Important – Medications ordered through BidRx.com may be out-of-network and thus not apply towards the deductible. Therefore, BidRx may be used best for drugs with bid prices less than your copay. So if you find a deal, check your network price and copay, too. If the savings is worth it, buy it.
When registering, you will need a referral code, feel free to use our code. EBA’s Referral Code is 35FFN.
Examples
Specialty Drugs – generally referring to drugs costing over $600 per month – are estimated to account for 30% of total drug costs and expected to reach 50% by 2018. These drugs are expensive to develop and pose challenges manufacturing. However they target life altering illnesses making them an absolute must if needed. These patients have chronic illnesses and are expected to be on medication for years.
The average cost of a specialty drug is $10,000 per month for a patient. (That’s not a typo – stat is provided by a principle of the Institute for Integrated Healthcare). Thus cost management is crucial to trying to hold down pharmacy costs. Strategies include requiring prior authorizations to assure the expensive drugs are the best fit and tiered out-of-pocket cost are two of the most common.
www.shrm.org/0314-specialty-drugs
A special thanks to SHRM – Content and video from the Article The Looming Rx Threat by Tamara Lytle.
The rule makes a temporary change to the administrative cost ceiling. Currently, as a result of the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR), insurers are allowed to have 20% of their costs be administrative, with the other 80% devoted to claims. That number has been increased to 22% for 2015 under the proposal to accommodate the increased burden issuers have faced in complying with the law and adjusting to the Exchanges. Issuers now have some more resources to devote to administrative costs next year.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the proposed rule and other guidance documents late March 14, 2014, in a continued effort to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The rule, is centered on implementation of market reform provisions of the ACA. The change to the risk corridors program was instituted as a way to cushion issuers from excessive gains or losses due to uncertainty surrounding premium rates.
