Managed care pharmaceutical industry faced with costs challenge

Dealing with rising costs is the biggest challenge facing the managed care pharmaceutical industry in the United States, according to experts.
 
Managed Healthcare Executive (MHE) spoke with over 200 insiders for their second annual managed care pharmacy survey, which was conducted in the first quarter of 2017.

It concluded that spiralling costs are presenting the most significant issues with regards to care and sustainability, especially with the rapidly-increasing demand for specialty drugs.

Drawing insight from Alliance of Community Health Plans research, MHE says that an annual 15-20% surge in demand for specialty drugs can be expected in the coming years.

This has been put down to a variety of contributing factors including a growing population, an increase in product pricing at manufacturer level and patients choosing new specialty treatment.

The experts also gave their views on potential solutions to the problem, with many advocating increased collaboration as a method to drive down costs.

“Collaboration could indeed have a positive effect on drug prices in the both the near and long term,” said Will Hinde, managing director, West Monroe Partners, a business and technology consulting firm with a focus that includes healthcare. 

“Collaboration in the near term between the payer, provider, and patient would seem to offer hope for near-term price relief to consumers through better payer/provider coordination. 

“Significant barriers exist to this collaboration, however, as each of these constituent groups jockey to ‘own’ patient and health data from various sources.”