Offering Patients Money to Switch Drugs May Become PBM Tool

PBMs have used formulary exclusions as an effective way to negotiate with manufacturers for several years. However, at least one payer has gotten more aggressive with its tactics to get members to move from an excluded drug to one with preferred status, dangling a financial incentive for members. That effort is facing pushback from several medical associations, but if it proves to be successful, other companies could follow suit, suggest industry experts.

PBMs began implementing formulary exclusion lists about 10 years ago, and specialty drugs have made up an increasing number of the excluded products. As of early 2021, each of the Big Three — CVS Health’s Caremark, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx — was excluding more than 400 products.

Earlier this year, Cigna began offering people on Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.’s Cosentyx (secukinumab) a $500 debit card if they switched from that agent — which moved from preferred to excluded status on Jan. 1 — to one of its preferred inflammatory treatments. Cosentyx is a human interleukin-17A antagonist approved for adult and pediatric plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. The company also has a nonpreferred formulary tier.

© 2025 MMIT
Angela Maas

Angela Maas

Angela has an extensive background of editing, reporting and writing for trade and consumer publications. She has written Radar on Specialty Pharmacy since she joined AIS Health in 2005 and has broad knowledge of the various issues at play within the space. She also has written for Spotlight on Market Access since its 2017 launch. Before joining AIS Health, she was managing editor at Employee Benefit News and Employee Benefit News Canada and managing editor at Hem Aware (a hemophilia publication), Lupus Living and Momentum (a multiple sclerosis publication). She has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in British literature from Arizona State University.

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