CVS Health has revealed a tool called that enables its retail pharmacists to compare prescription prices at the counter.
Through the CVS Pharmacy Rx Savings Finder, pharmacists can review a patient’s prescription history and insurance information. They will be able to search for lower-cost choices like generic medications or therapeutic alternatives. Pharmacists can also see whether the consumer can save money by filling a 90-day prescription rather than a 30-day one.
“Our direct experience is that patients who are confronted with high out-of-pocket costs at the pharmacy counter are less likely to pick up their prescriptions and are less likely to be adherent to their prescribed therapy,” Kevin Hourican, CVS Pharmacy’s executive vice president of retail pharmacy, said in a news release.
He noted that the rollout of the Rx Savings Finder is starting with CVS Caremark PBM members. The Woonsocket, Rhode Island company plans to make the tool more broadly available throughout 2018.
The move by CVS comes as high drug prices continue to be a spotlighted problem in the healthcare sector. Various entities using different approaches to tackle the issue.
In 2017, Surescripts spearheaded an effort to make medication cost information available in EHRs. The collaboration involves pharmacy benefit managers CVS Health and Express Scripts as well as EHR vendors like Allscripts, Cerner, Epic and GE Healthcare. The result of the initiative is what Surescripts calls the Real-Time Prescription Benefit tool, which seeks to improve overall price transparency in the prescribing process.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Earlier this year, four health systems — Intermountain Healthcare, Ascension, SSM Health and Trinity Health — and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs unveiled plans to launch a nonprofit generic drug company. The yet-to-be-named company will involve more than 450 hospitals, with other health systems set to join the project in the future. Overall, the organizations hope their effort will lower medication costs and help ensure patients get the prescriptions they need.
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