Health Insurance Daily

Higher Co-pay Differentials Increase Generic Fill Rates

If you want workers to opt for generic drugs, raise the co-payment differential in your prescription drug plan. That's the lesson learned from a new study of 2004 prescription drug claims by the pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts. "

A pharmacy benefit plan design that increases the differential between brand and generic co-payments by $10 can expect to achieve a 3% to 4% increase in the generic fill rate, which can translate into a 3% to 4% reduction in drug costs," says Jake Cedergreen, director of benefit design and modeling.

One way to boost generic usage without raising overall costs to patients, study authors suggest, is to reduce co-pays for generic medications but increase them by the same amount for branded medications. Employers that do so stand to save a lot of money, as several major brand-name drugs are scheduled to lose patent protection over the next five years. For example, the patent for Zocor, the cholesterol-reducing drug that reaped $3 billion in U.S. sales in 2004, will expire this year.

"Given the significant generic opportunity in front of us, the research points to co-pay differentials as a key driver for increasing generic fill rates," Cedergreen remarks.

Article provided by BenefitNews (2-23-06).

posted by Mike @ 10:40 AM