CVS to Help Patients Find Cheaper Drugs
April 11 2018 - 7:37AM
Dow Jones News
By Austen Hufford
CVS Health Corp. (CVS) said it is launching a tool that will
help patients and pharmacists more easily find cheaper drug
options.
The move is the latest example of a healthcare company
publically working to cap consumers' drug costs. Health insurers
Aetna Inc. (AET) and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) said recently
that they would give drugmaker rebates directly to consumers. CVS
is working to buy Aetna.
In recent years, the opaque system surrounding the cost of
medicine and sharply increasing drug prices have come under public
and government scrutiny.
"We are committed to finding the right drug at the lowest
possible cost for patients to ensure they are able to access and
stay on the medications they need," said Thomas Moriarty, who is
CVS's chief policy officer.
Using the new tool, retail pharmacists will be able to review a
patient's prescription regimen, drug history and insurance plan
information to determine how to save them out-of-pocket costs. For
example, the tool could show a generic alternative or tell the
pharmacist if a different prescription length is cheaper.
A similar tool will also be available to doctors, who will be
shown similar covered drugs. CVS said that prescribers accessing
real-time benefits information switched their patient's drug from a
noncovered drug to a drug that was covered 85% of the time.
Write to Austen Hufford at Austen.Hufford@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 11, 2018 08:22 ET (12:22 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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