The cost of prescription drugs fluctuates wildly depending on a number of factors. This is true for both individuals and families alike. However, pharmacy benefit managers can aid in reducing the price of certain prescription drugs, and help you provide more affordable care to your employees.
No matter your industry, sector, or space, if you provide insurance to your employees and their families, you have the chance to reduce their costs. Here’s how pharmacy benefit managers make it happen.
What Are Pharmacy Benefit Managers?
A simple way to describe a PBM is a middleman of sorts. They are the point person/organization between employers and health care providers and assist in negotiating the price and level of medical care and prescription medications available to those covered by the plan.
What Do They Do?
Pharmacy Benefit Managers provide much of the logistical work required to help your employees receive their medications. To do so, they take on a number of different responsibilities, including:
- Rebate negotiation
- Mail-order operations
- Drug utilization reviews
- Claims processing
- Formulary maintenance
- Distribution network management
- Specialty services
- Lowering pharmacy costs for employers, those insured, and Medicare beneficiaries
- Protecting affordability and choice in Medicare Part D
Key Functions
While PBMs assist in a number of ways, their key functions provide the most essential benefits, including:
- Providing home delivery of medications
- Creating networks with more affordable pharmacies to offer lower costs
- Informing the insured of generic options and encouraging their use when appropriate
- Negotiating high-cost specialty medication prices
- Reducing unnecessary waste through bulk buying
Proven Results
PBMs’ ability to help those insured receive more favorable prices and services has been established by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They found that PBMs’ ability to negotiate larger rebates from manufacturers contributed to lower drug prices, as well as limiting the growth of drug spending.
We Can Help
While pharmacy benefit managers help with essential parts of coverage, finding the right benefits for your employees is crucial. VillaNOVA offers and exclusive PBM solution to help ensure that you and your employees’ medications are priced competitively and more affordably.
Our full range of employee benefits solutions can help you find the most appropriate program for your needs. We provide a full benefits program analysis so you have a complete view of the pros and any areas that can be improved upon with another plan or adjustment. We also provide medical and prescription drug analysis to provide you with the data you need to make informed decisions.
Our other solutions include access to:
- Our benefits technology platform
- Alternative funding platforms
- Annual compliance reviews
- Carrier and vendor marketing
- Wellness support
- Reporting and forecasting
- Benchmarking
- An overall five-year plan to success
Trust VillaNOVA with Your Insurance Brokerage
With decades of experience among our team, we’re able to provide you with new ideas and unrivaled service to help you succeed. Because of our size, we’re able to provide a level of service and dedication that our competitors at larger firms cannot.
Want to learn more about how VillaNOVA’s solutions can help your business? Contact us today.