3 Things You Should Know: 2019 Navitus Drug Trend Report

Written by Navitus Health Solutions | 5/21/20 1:00 PM

Don’t have time to read the full report? Here are three things you need to know.

Prescription affordability continues to be a top issue in health care. This makes sense when you consider that according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), medical spending is expected to grow by 5.4% per year over the next decade.¹ Last year, plan sponsors experienced ever-increasing costs for their pharmacy benefits, with price inflation and increased specialty utilization.

We met these challenges head-on with our continued commitment to reinvent pharmacy benefits and make prescriptions more affordable for everyone. Here are three highlights from our latest drug trend report that demonstrate that plan sponsors don't have to just "live" with high pharmacy benefit costs. It's possible to lower costs, even in today's challenging health care environment.

#1 NAVITUS CONTINUES TO DELIVER INDUSTRY-LEADING SAVINGS

Given all that is going on in the pharmacy industry, we’re proud to report that we bucked the trend of high pharmacy benefit costs in 2019 with an industry-leading PMPM of $78.12 across our commercial book of business, which is 16% lower than the forecasted industry average of $93.11 PMPM.

#2 THE SAVINGS CONTINUE AFTER YEAR ONE

But, the good news doesn’t stop there. What’s even more impactful is our unique ability to sustain savings over time. We’ve successfully held PMPM costs to a substantially lower number than the industry average year after year, from 2015 to 2019. This provides greater value over time. In fact, we were able to deliver a five-year cumulative savings of $64.77 PMPM.

#3 CLIENTS EXPERIENCE SAVINGS REGARDLESS OF INDUSTRY

With our commitment to making pharmacy benefits more affordable for everyone, this achievement allows us to deliver improvements in PMPM for many of our plan sponsors. In fact, 40% of our established clients experienced a negative PMPM trend compared to the previous year.

Clients who moved to Navitus from another PBM in 2019 saved an average of 25%* in drug spend. Although from various industries, these clients all benefitted from our pass-through approach, lowest-net-cost formulary and outstanding clinical care model, along with other cost saving strategies that helped increase their PMPM trend savings. Hospital system clients experienced a 30% savings, government clients achieved a 20% decline and employer clients realized a 22% reduction in costs over their previous PBM.

Want to learn how you can save? Download our 2019 Drug Trend Report today! It’s loaded with cost management strategies that can help get your Rx benefits headed in the right direction.

*2019 Navitus Data Analysis (Includes clients who provided historical data)

Keehan SP, Cuckler GA, Poisal JA, et al. National Health Expenditure Projections, 2019–28: Expected Rebound In Prices Drives Rising Spending Growth. Health Affairs. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00094. Published March 24, 2020. Accessed May 20, 2020.

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