Public Resources

The National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions launched a “deep dive” initiative earlier this year focused on the medical side of drug benefits with the intent to support employers in better understanding the key challenges and identify key strategies they can leverage to better address cost and system challenges with their drug management strategy.

With the top 10 most expensive drugs in the US range from over $633,000 to well over $2.1 million annually, specialty drugs have been the fastest-growing area of spend for employers for the last several years. Since the vast majority of all specialty is currently in the medical category, it’s important for purchasers to understand and analyze these costs. Markups and misalignment of incentives have created unstructured pricing that has left employers and other purchasers in the dark about what they are paying for and whether they have access to the highest value care.

This infographic provides an overview of key expectations employers should have when addressing the medical side of their drug benefits and a set of important strategies that can use when working across the supply chain to achieve transparency and value.