It’s no secret that managing chronic conditions accounts for the largest portion of America’s ever-growing pharmacy spend. Given that it’s American Diabetes Month—and that diabetes is one of the more prevalent and costly chronic conditions—there’s no better time to take a deeper look into how Rx Savings Solutions addresses this disease while also lowering costs for patients and payors.
Living with diabetes is challenging, from tracking A1C to managing cholesterol and blood pressure, not to mention navigating complex treatment plans. For many patients, there’s also concern about the cost of diabetes medication.
That’s where Rx Savings Solutions comes in. Our technology can identify savings opportunities for specific health conditions and the drugs most often prescribed in the courses of treatment.
Case in point: We’ve now helped nearly 12,000 members with diabetes reduce out-of-pocket and plan costs by more than $12 million. How?
Targeted Savings Opportunities
Here’s just one recent example: Our patented algorithms identified more than 300 members on a certain formulation of metformin—a common treatment for Type 2 diabetics—that was expensive in their plan designs and formularies. Our clinical suggestions engine mapped them to a therapeutically equivalent form of metformin that would produce an estimated $2 million in annual savings for those members and their plans.
This is what our technology does around the clock. But identification is just the beginning.
Outreach & Education
It took a strategic, targeted engagement plan to reach these members and inform them of the options, which helps them create a diabetes treatment plan with their provider. As we know, oftentimes a doctor has no idea what a given drug will cost an individual patient. We deliver that layer of transparency that helps put members in the driver’s seat.
Outreach started with phone calls from our Pharmacy Support team of certified pharmacy technicians to each of the 300-plus affected members. A targeted email campaign followed, informing them of their savings opportunities and how to take advantage. If they elected to make the change, Rx Savings Solutions worked directly with their doctor and pharmacy to seamlessly coordinate the new prescription fill.
Real Change. Real Savings.
We’ve now seen over 2,800 switches specific to metformin, averaging $22 in member savings and $711 in client savings on each refill.
Of the 12,000 members who have used us to find lower-cost options for their diabetes medications, 6,000 of them have engaged with us in just the past six months alone—translating to more than $3.2 million in savings. That’s a significant trend and one that we expect to continue.
Ensuring affordable access to life-saving medication is at the core of what we do. American Diabetes Month is an important time to affirm that we stand with everyone battling this disease. They should know Rx Savings Solutions is working year-round to help them, too.
