Health Affairs, 25, no. 5 (2006): 1332-1339
doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.25.5.1332
© 2006 by Project HOPE
 
New Online
 * Getting Health Reform Done
 * After the State of the Union
 * Incremental Reform
 * E-Health in Developing World
 * Most-Read Articles in 2009
This Article
* Figures Only
* Full Text (HTML)
* Reprint (PDF)
* Submit a response to this article
* Alert me when this article is cited
* Alert me when Comments are posted
* Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
* E-mail this article to a friend
* Similar articles in this journal
* Similar articles in PubMed
* Alert me to new issues of the journal
* Add to My Personal Archive
* Download to Citation Manager
*Reprints & Permissions
Citing Articles
* Citing Articles via Web of Science (4)
* Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
* Articles by Mullins, C. D.
* Articles by Caputo, N.
* Search for Related Content
PubMed
* PubMed Citation
* Articles by Mullins, C. D.
* Articles by Caputo, N.
Related Collections
* Access To Care
* Insurance Coverage
* Managed Care
* Managed Care - Consumers
* Business Of Health
* Pharmaceuticals
* Chronic Care
* Quality Of Care
* Research And Technology
* Health Spending
* Consumer Issues
* Insurance Market

Specialty Drugs

Health Plans’ Strategies For Managing Outpatient Specialty Pharmaceuticals

C. Daniel Mullins, Danielle Chauncey Lavallee, Françoise G. Pradel, Andrea R. DeVries and Nadine Caputo

Balancing increased spending for specialty pharmaceuticals while providing affordable and equitable coverage for consumers is a key issue for public and private payers. Health plans rely on an array of strategies, including both medical management and those used for more traditional pharmaceuticals. To explore specific management strategies for outpatient specialty pharmaceuticals, a survey was administered to thirty-eight Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, focused on identifying core strategies. Prior authorization was the most commonly used strategy, implemented by 83.3 percent of respondents. Other frequently implemented management strategies included claims review (82.8 percent), formulary management (76.7 percent), and utilization review (70 percent).


Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati    What's this?