DestinationRx
Description | Challenge | Solution | Outcomes | Time Investment | Lessons Learned | Future Changes
Description
DestinationRx helps millions of consumers choose and use the health plan and medications that are best for them and their families. One Fortune 100 client is providing our drug comparison tool on their Intranet portal in order to help employees better understand their medications and find lower cost options to those prescribed by their doctor.
Challenge
This employer, like most today, is still paying a substantial amount of money for employees taking expense brand medications when lower cost alternatives are available.
Solution
This employer licensed a private label version of the DestinationRx Drug Compare web tool giving employees access to one of the most comprehensive medication decision-support systems with a goal of driving improved compliance and cost containment through a better understanding of their medication treatment options. Typically consumers can generate 20 to 50 percent savings on their medications or co-payments by purchasing other brand or generic drugs with similar effectiveness. The system was pre-loaded with the employer’s specific plan design, preferred drug list, and customized graphics ensure employee relevancy and confidence in the tool.
The tool takes medications prescribed by a patient's doctor or the condition for which a patient is being treated to automatically identify more cost effective options based on dosage specific therapeutic equivalencies and their prescription plan pricing. The system provides the patient with the most complete drug comparison available, including brand, generic equivalent, generic alternative, over-the-counter and alternate dosing therapeutic options. The tool also integrates easy to understand side by side comparison of side effects, drug to drug interaction alerts, general drug information and information on what makes an option an option. Due to the employer’s population a Spanish language version was also provided.
The tool was launched prior to open enrollment and a messaging campaign was developed to encourage use while selecting benefits for the following year.
Outcomes
One of the key challenges to implementing this and any decision-support tool is driving usage by members. This large employer successfully focused on the open enrollment period as a time when their employees were already online and could take advantage of the tool.
Results from the initial open enrollment period:- 6,600 drugs analyzed by employees
- Average employee savings per drug analyzed was $314
- Total potential member savings of $2 million (assuming every drug review was changed to the lowest cost option)
- Total potential savings for the employer of $2.5 million (assuming every drug review was changed to the lowest cost option)
Additional Information
Fortune 100 employer with 70,000 covered lives
Time Commitment for Implementation
Planning cycle: Approximately 8 weeksImplementation time: Approximately 6 weeks
Lessons learned
Open enrollment is a good time to engage employees in other healthcare related discussions. A regular and ongoing marketing campaign must be maintained for all healthcare initiatives in order to keep members engaged.
If you implemented this solution again, what would you do differently?
Placed more emphasis during planning on a long-term communication campaign to maintain the initial interest generated during the first open enrollment period.
