100% Focused on Market Access

MMIT brings transparency and guidance to pharmacy and medical benefit information

Manage with confidence. Decide with information. Communicate with certainty.
MMIT

Radar On Market Access: Troy Medicare Aims to Launch Pharmacist-Centered Model in NC

June 25, 2019

Troy Medicare, a small Medicare Advantage plan start-up, aims to shake up the North Carolina MA marketplace during the coming fall open enrollment by offering a pharmacist-centered delivery model that will pay local, independent pharmacists directly for enhanced care management services to seniors.

Troy Medicare, a small Medicare Advantage plan start-up, aims to shake up the North Carolina MA marketplace during the coming fall open enrollment by offering a pharmacist-centered delivery model that will pay local, independent pharmacists directly for enhanced care management services to seniors.

“We will go live on Jan. 1, 2020,” in a five-county, “semi-rural” service area around Charlotte, N.C., Troy CEO Flaviu Simihaian tells AIS Health.

Under its model, Troy is working with Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network (CPESN). According to Simihaian, the new MA Prescription Drug (MA-PD) plan will contract with CPESN to provide reimbursement of $30 to $50 per member per month (PMPM), relying on participating pharmacists to document their services to determine reimbursement amounts.

Brian Anderson, a principal with Milliman, Inc., tells AIS Health that reimbursement is a key issue.

“It is an innovative model,” he says. “It’s been in the conversation for about 15 years, but the challenge has always been the reimbursement aspect and verifying the [pharmacist] consultations are occurring, and the pharmacist is actually spending time with the patient.”

“It hasn’t worked through the current NCPDP [National Council for Prescription Drug Plans] transaction processes” for Part D plans, Anderson says. “But if they’re just paying an administrative fee PMPM back to those pharmacists, that would be different than having the administrative fee paid through the claims payment system.”

Then there is the question of whether the benefit of pharmacist consultation is offsetting the potentially deeper prescription-drug discounts and higher rebates that large pharmacy chains or mail order pharmacy are able to give, as compared to small independent pharmacies, he says.

MMIT Reality Check on Hemophilia A or B With Inhibitors (Jun 2019)

June 21, 2019

According to our recent payer coverage analysis for hemophilia A or B with inhibitors treatments, combined with news from key healthcare influencers, market access is shifting in this drug landscape.

According to our recent payer coverage analysis for hemophilia A or B with inhibitors treatments, combined with news from key healthcare influencers, market access is shifting in this drug landscape.

To help make sense of this new research, MMIT’s team of experts analyzes the data and summarizes the key findings for you. The following are brief highlights. To read the full piece, including payer coverage, drug competition and prescriber trends, click here.

Payer Coverage: A review of market access for hemophilia A or B with inhibitors treatments shows that under the pharmacy benefit, about 45% of the lives under commercial formularies are covered with utilization management restrictions.

Trends: Hemophilia treatments have focused on procoagulants, but researchers now are looking into therapies that target natural anticoagulants.

Trends That Matter for COPD Medications

June 20, 2019

A new generic alternative for GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair Diskus (fluticasone/salmeterol) provides payers with the chance to better manage care in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition in which high out-of-pocket costs often lead to lower compliance and an increased risk of hospitalization, AIS Health reported.

A new generic alternative for GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair Diskus (fluticasone/salmeterol) provides payers with the chance to better manage care in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition in which high out-of-pocket costs often lead to lower compliance and an increased risk of hospitalization, AIS Health reported.

Advair Diskus, a combination long-acting beta-agonist and an inhaled corticosteroid, has been one of the most common drugs used for COPD, a condition largely dominated by brand products. The generic, marketed by Mylan and approved Jan. 30, joins generics for two additional COPD devices: a generic for Ventolin HFA (albuterol) and one for Proair HFA (albuterol).

All three have the potential to save payers and patients significant money. Charline Shan, R.Ph., vice president, access experience team at payer insights and strategy firm Precision for Value, says plans have multiple options for structuring their formularies with the amount of generic options available.

Generics are typically included, with brand drugs placed on preferred or nonpreferred tiers based on price, “but not all are required or have to be on the formulary since there are many branded and therapeutic equivalent options,” she says.

Below is the current market access to COPD medications under the pharmacy benefit:

Radar On Market Access: Magellan Rx Initiates Oncology Biosimilars Program

June 20, 2019

Magellan Rx Management, the PBM division of Magellan Health, Inc., on June 4 announced its launch of an oncology biosimilars program, preparing its health plan customers for the expected market entry of biosimilars for three cancer-fighting drugs — Herceptin, Rituxan and Avastin — later this year, AIS Health reported.

Magellan Rx Management, the PBM division of Magellan Health, Inc., on June 4 announced its launch of an oncology biosimilars program, preparing its health plan customers for the expected market entry of biosimilars for three cancer-fighting drugs — Herceptin, Rituxan and Avastin — later this year, AIS Health reported.

“Oncology is by far the largest therapeutic area for drug spend on the medical benefit, and it is even higher in Medicare,” Steve Cutts, senior vice president and general manager for Magellan Rx’s specialty drug unit, tells AIS Health. Thus, he says, the PBM will be focusing the oncology biosimilars program “on all lines of business for our clients.”

The three oncology brand drugs together account for $9 billion in U.S. drug sales, and almost $50 million in annual drug spend per 1 million covered commercial lives, Magellan Rx says. The PBM anticipates savings of $5 million to $8 million per 1 million covered lives via its new program but sees “potential for even greater savings based on [its] past successes with biosimilars.”

Under a multi-pronged program, Magellan Rx aims to develop clinical protocols while educating and communicating with network oncologists; incorporate biosimilars into key utilization management programs, such as medical prior authorization and provider reimbursement/fee schedule management; and work continuously with its oncology advisory board.

Cutts notes that Herceptin, Rituxan and Avastin “all have FDA approved biosimilars which are due to be launched and available on the market in 2019, with some speculated to be available as soon as this month.”

Radar On Market Access: Payers Are Wary as First NASH Drugs May Hit U.S. Market Soon

June 18, 2019

Doctors trying to treat patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) — a serious type of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that, if left untreated, may progress to cardiovascular disease, cirrhosis, cancer and possibly the need for a liver transplant — soon may have new options in their arsenal beyond promoting exercise and diet. The first-ever NASH drugs are expected to hit the U.S. market as early as 2020 to help address this increasingly prevalent, complex disease spawned largely by the obesity epidemic and surge of type 2 diabetes in the U.S., AIS Health reported.

Doctors trying to treat patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) — a serious type of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that, if left untreated, may progress to cardiovascular disease, cirrhosis, cancer and possibly the need for a liver transplant — soon may have new options in their arsenal beyond promoting exercise and diet. The first-ever NASH drugs are expected to hit the U.S. market as early as 2020 to help address this increasingly prevalent, complex disease spawned largely by the obesity epidemic and surge of type 2 diabetes in the U.S., AIS Health reported.

Dieterich says the entry of first-ever NASH medications will “definitely” offer significant benefit to patients. “There’s no question [the drugs will help] — in combination with diet and exercise,” says Douglas Dieterich, M.D., director of the Institute for Liver Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System. “It will have to be the whole package.”
Multiple drugs are in phase 3 clinical trials for NASH. A front-runner is Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s drug, Ocaliva (obeticholic acid), already on the market to treat another liver condition. But the FDA isn’t expected to approve Intercept’s drug for NASH until the second quarter of 2020, Dieterich notes.

Dieterich says he expects NASH medications will “undoubtedly” be marketed as specialty drugs that will be “strictly controlled” by PBMs and insurance companies. He expects such drugs to become available only to the sickest patients, possibly only after a diagnostic liver biopsy is performed.

From a plan perspective, Yusuf Rashid, R.Ph., vice president of pharmacy and vendor relationship management at Community Health Plan of Washington, says NASH “has similarities to other recent new breakthrough therapies where the outcome we are trying to avoid is costly and potentially fatal but not all patients…will even progress to fibrosis. The reason why NASH is more significant is the sheer number of patients that may qualify for treatment.”