CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) announced today that the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI) awarded the company and its PBM client ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company, the 2011 Rx Benefit Innovation Award. The award recognizes the Pharmacy Advisor program, which was developed by CVS Caremark to manage costs, improve medication adherence and close gaps in care for members with diabetes.
Pharmacy Advisor is an innovative PBM solution that leverages CVS Caremark's unique PBM and retail assets to improve pharmacy care. The company applies rules engine technology to PBM claims data in order to identify plan members with diabetes who currently have sub-optimal pharmacy care, as well as those who may be at risk of becoming sub-optimal. Evidence-based protocols are also applied to review the member's current treatment and identify gaps in care or issues with medication adherence. Once these clinical improvement opportunities are identified for the member, pharmacists discuss these opportunities based on the member's preferred mode of communication – either on the phone with a pharmacist or face-to-face at a local CVS/pharmacy store.
"This honor illustrates how an employer and its PBM can work together to improve health care quality while better managing cost," said Per Lofberg, President of CVS Caremark's pharmacy benefit management business. "For CVS Caremark, this award validates our efforts to develop innovative programs that improve patient engagement, better manage chronic diseases like diabetes and help clients keep their health care costs down."
In late 2009 through early 2010, CVS Caremark piloted the Pharmacy Advisor program with ArcelorMittal in the US where the company currently has approximately 80,000 covered lives. At the start of the pilot program, the client's member population had a diabetes prevalence rate of 13.7 percent. In addition, 48 percent of members with diabetes had at least one gap in therapy and one-third were non-adherent to prescribed medications. By the conclusion of the six month pilot, the program had already achieved significant improvements in closing gaps in care and increasing medication adherence rates compared to a control group. Program results demonstrated that a significantly higher number of gaps in care were closed compared to a control group of members who were not counseled: 59 percent higher for phone-based counseling and 91 percent higher for face-to-face counseling.
"Health and safety is the top priority at ArcelorMittal. Therefore, we are committed to finding ways to help our employees and their families lead healthier lives, and this program has helped us meet that goal by delivering improved outcomes for our employees and their insured family members with diabetes," said Mary Hendrickson, Manager, Employee Benefits, ArcelorMittal. "The program engaged participants by providing them with access to information through personalized counseling with a trained pharmacist either on the phone or face-to-face."
"The Pharmacy Advisor program achieved positive results for one of our coalition members by dramatically improving pharmacy care for its members with diabetes," said Christopher V. Goff Esq., CEO and General Counsel for the Employers Health Purchasing Corporation of Ohio (EHPCO). "Based on the positive experience of this employer and its members during the pilot program, the majority of EHPCO coalition members have decided to adopt the Pharmacy Advisor program for 2011 and are looking forward to improved member engagement, increased adherence and reduced overall health care costs."
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