Jane Sarasohn-Kahn – Page 7 – The Health Care Blog

Wal-Mart drops drug prices, shakes up market — again

May 9, 2008• 11

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Wal-Mart continued its first-mover tactics in health by dropping the price of prescriptions again. This time, the target is maintenance meds, which Wal-Mart will price at $10 for a 90-days supply.

This move puts Wal-Mart squarely in the pharmacy benefits management (PBM) segment vis-à-vis ExpressScripts, Medco, and the big PBM players. The three-month mail order med business is the lucrative turf of PBMs. Wal-Mart’s first move into this space was in 2006 when the company priced many 30-day prescriptions at $4, shaking up the industry. I wrote about that market disruption here in January 2008.

Wal-Mart will also offer over 1,000 over-the-counter (OTC) meds for $4 and under. These will all be Wal-Mart’s private labels for popular OTC brands.

As the company with the red bulls-eye did the last time Wal-Mart dropped the price of meds, Target responded as a fast follower by saying they, too, will match the Wal-Mart prices for a 90-day supply of drugs. Target’s program will expand the assortment of $4 Rx drugs and the 90-day supply of these medications for $10 and private-label OTC medications for $4 or less.

Health Plan Illiteracy: study finds many do not understand their benefits

May 7, 2008• 7

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Health plan illiteracy is alive and well, according to J.D. Power and Associates. The consumer market research firm’s 2008 National Health Insurance Plan Study finds that one in two plan members don’t understand their plan.

In this second year of the survey, J.D. Power notes that, as consumers understand the benefits of their Benefit, their satisfaction with the plan increases. Thus, there is a virtuous cycle that happens between a plan and an enrollee when communication is clear and understood.

J.D. Power looked at member satisfaction in 107 health plans throughout the U.S. in terms of seven key metrics: coverage and benefits; choice of doctors, hospitals and pharmacies; information and communication; approval processes; claims processing; insurance statements; and customer service. The survey was conducted in November and December 2007.

Last year, Abt Associates found that most insured workers don’t understand simple health plan language. I abstracted some of Abt’s findings in this chart that I use in many of my presentations. Health plan illiteracy goes beyond general health illiteracy — this is people blessed with benefits who don’t ‘get’ them.

The virtues of virtual visits

May 7, 2008• 2

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn

Rush-Presbyterian Medical Center’s Virtual Integrated Practice (VIP) is more evidence that remote health care can improve health outcomes.

At Rush, a team has been refining the VIP model for the past four years. The VIP’s objective is to improve chronic disease management for older people by deploying aninterdisciplinary team using communications technology.

The main challenges in primary care for VIP’s target patient population are:

Multiple chronic problems
Polypharmacy
Physical disability
Functional impairment
Economic stressors

The Holy Grail here is that when these patients are optimally-managed, VIP can identify missed opportunities for primary prevention and avoid eventual disability.