pharmacy benefit management News

Market Value of Insurers, Drugstores Drops on Amazon Plans to Sell Prescription Drugs

The leading drugstores, drug distributors and health insurers lost about $22 billion in market value Tuesday after Amazon.com Inc. revealed plans to start selling prescription drugs to its Prime members in the U.S. The long awaited move pushed Walgreens Boots …

How Pharmacies Are Resisting Amazon’s Attempt to Corner Their Business

Getting into the pharmacy business was easy for Amazon.com: It paid $753 million to buy the mail-order startup PillPack. The hard part has been prying patients away from their local drugstore. Since being acquired by the internet giant, PillPack has …

Reimagining Health Care After CVS Takeover of Aetna: Viewpoint

CVS Health Corp. CEO Larry Merlo is a 28-year veteran of the company who helped lead its transformation from a regional drugstore chain into a pharmacy giant. Now, after guiding CVS through its $69 billion acquisition of insurer Aetna Inc., …

CVS-Aetna Merger Will Influence Employers’ Benefits Decisions: Aon

CVS Corp.’s proposed purchase of Aetna Inc. will affect decision-making by a majority of large and mid-size U.S. corporations on employee health benefits, a survey by benefits consultant Aon Plc found. CVS, the second-largest U.S. pharmacy benefit manager, on Dec. …

CVS to Pay $67.5B for Aetna to Create Giant Health Firm with ‘10,000 New Front Doors’

CVS Health Corp. will buy Aetna Inc. for about $67.5 billion, creating a healthcare giant that will have a hand in everything from insurance to the corner drugstore. CVS will pay $207 a share for Aetna, with $145 a share …

Pharmacy Cost in Workers’ Compensation Continues to Fall: CompPharma Survey

Workers’ compensation payers saw an average 11 percent reduction in their pharmacy spend in 2016, driven by a 13.3 percent reduction in opioid cost, according to an annual survey by pharmacy benefit manager CompPharma. CompPharma’s 14th Annual Survey of Prescription …

Employers Struggle to Manage Benefits Covering Specialty Drugs

Twenty-seven percent of employers are offering their employees a high deductible plan with co-insurance as part of their specialty drug benefit, and although this strategy helps to lower insurance premiums, it can also result in members not being able to …