Atlanta, GA – Healthcare Solutions, the parent company of Cypress Care, a leading provider of pharmacy and specialty healthcare services, today released its 2012 Workers’ Compensation Drug Trends Report. The report is a comprehensive study based on a thorough analysis of changes in prescription drug cost, drug mix and utilization patterns occurring in 2011.
“Results reported in this year’s study would not have been achieved without constant vigilance and program innovation to significantly impact claims outcomes by improving patient access to care while helping our customers to manage and reduce costs,” said David A. George, chief executive officer of Healthcare Solutions. “Publishing an annual drug trends report is just one way that Healthcare Solutions demonstrates our commitment to our customers and industry stakeholders.”
In previous years, Healthcare Solutions’ reports clearly indicated that claim age is a critical driver of pharmacy trends. Based on these findings, the company decided to take a unique approach to the 2012 report by segmenting claim age between developing claims (0-3 service years) versus mature claims (3+ service years).
“We used a new approach in the 2012 report because last year we saw that every major metric was influenced by claim age,” said Jim Andrews, R.Ph., senior vice president of pharmacy services for Healthcare Solutions. “In the 2012 report, we start by looking at claim age first and then drill down into the other factors affecting pharmacy spend like the number of prescriptions, generic dispensing rate and utilization.”
Key findings in the report include:
- Opioid use among developing claims has decreased almost 2%, and remained stable among mature claims
- Utilization of antidepressants is five times greater in mature claims, but is minimal and remains consistent with previous years in emerging claims
- Mature claims, on average have an eight times higher cost than developing claims
- In emerging claims, the generic dispensing rate (GDR) was 82.4% while for mature claims, the GDR was 66%, resulting in 16.4% more brands utilized in mature claims
- In emerging claims, 9 of the top 10 utilized drugs were generic, versus 6 of the top 10 utilized drugs in mature claims
- The top 4 drugs by cost are single-source brands in mature claims
- There was an increase in single-source opioids and single-source anticonvulsants in mature claims.
- Based on the differences in drug mix and utilization, the price per day per injured worker for opioids is double in mature claims ($9.79) when compared to emerging claims ($4.28)
- Anti-inflammatory utilization is two times greater in emerging claims
The 2012 Drug Trends Report is available at: www.hsdrugtrends.com