Walgreens Health Initiatives reports negative drug trend for highly managed plans

Pharmacy benefit manager Walgreens Health Initiatives (WHI) reported that its highly managed drug plans (i.e., those that took full advantage of its clinical services) experienced a decline in their prescription drug cost trend by .07% from 2006 to 2007. Meanwhile, the company's average total prescription medication cost increase, or drug trend, for its clients in general was 5.6%, the fourth consecutive year of only single-digit hikes. When specialty medications are excluded, the overall trend drops to 4.8%. These and other findings will be available online in early summer in WHI's report Outlook, Trend Report 2008. The report also details other key outcomes, including a generic dispensing rate of 61.2%.

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