PBM satisfaction up slightly, survey shows
PBM satisfaction up slightly, survey shows
Employers, HMOs weigh in for annual survey
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) score higher marks in their performance of administrative and operational functions than in their ability to produce utilization management, according to the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute’s (PBMI) annual survey of the employers and HMOs who use PBMs nationwide.
For the 1998 survey, responses were compiled from representatives of 330 employers, each with an employee population of more than 2,500 en rolled in health plans, and from 69 HMOs encompassing some 10 million enrolled. Each was asked to rate 22 PBM services from a low to high performance scale of 1 to 10, then place a separate score of 1 to 4 on the importance of the same services. (See charts, at right and on pp. 63-64.)
The average performance scores were similar among both groups, with pharmacy network management topping both scales and disease management fairing poorest with both groups. But at the same time, both groups placed the highest and lowest importance on those same categories. Neither group was happy with the cost of drugs or the reality of promised savings, aspects both ranked high in their importance scores.
Formulary management also rated poorly, averaging a 6.7 score among employers and a 6.4 among HMOs, while both groups also placed formulary management among the lowest in terms of importance. Putting all scores together, employer satisfaction increased from a 7 to a 7.4 score compared to last year’s survey, with HMO satisfaction rising overall from 6.2 to 7.3.
Within the overall dissatisfaction with drug utilization management, both employer and HMO representatives focused their concerns on inadequate management reports, failure to identify opportunities for utilization management, and failure to act on those opportunities when they are identified.
In perhaps the most telling information included in the follow-up conversations between institute surveyors and respondents, "many respondents indicated that they provided more positive responses to surveys conducted by their PBM or surveys conducted by some third-party with which their PBM contracted than they gave in response to PBMI’s survey," the survey report states.
But that notion, if accurate, does give weight to other sections of the 42-page survey, primarily the individual performance scores given to nine of the country’s largest PBMs: Caremark Prescription Service, Diversified Pharmaceutical Services, Express Scripts/ValuRx, Merck-Medco Managed Care Inc., National Prescription Administrators, PCS Health Systems, Advance Paradigm, Aetna Pharmacy Management, and Eckerd Health Services. (See next page for more information.)
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.