October 2009
Client Connection
IN THIS ISSUE

Innoviant a Prescription Solutions company
  • Effective Communication for Plan Success Part 1
    Creating perspective
  • Generic Utilization Part 4
    How Your Generic Program
    Helps You Strike a Balance
  • Member Education:
    Diabetes

Effective Communication for Plan Success Part 1: Creating Perspective
By Erin Klein, Innoviant Marketing Communications Manager

Creating perspective is one of the most effective tools in your pharmacy benefit plan communication toolbox. It goes beyond telling your members what programs are available. Sharing plan data establishes a context that helps members understand the importance of actually using the programs.

You can employ both general and plan-specific context to personalize your members’ call to action:

  • Overall value of plan sponsor provided benefits – Including all benefits, the average U.S. worker’s total compensation is roughly base salary plus 30 percent. For example, with a base salary of $30,000, an employer pays approximately $39,000 in total compensation.
  • Rising prescription medication costs – According to Novartis, between 1999 and 2007, the national average cost per prescription rose from $42.27 to $90.74 – an increase of nearly 215 percent.
  • Generic utilization savings – For each 1 percent of members who use a generic instead of a brand name medication, a plan can save up to $1.14 per member per month. Regardless of plan design for member savings from generic utilization, it’s important for members to know generics save the plan money too. Members who use generics contribute to keeping your cost to provide the plan more affordable from one year to the next.
  • Total annual pharmacy plan spend – By sharing an actual dollar figure, you set the stage for your members to view the plan in concrete terms, rather than leaving room for guesses. It’s similar to what you experience in a jewelry store: when you see the price tag for a diamond necklace, you can better appreciate the materials, workmanship and beauty of the piece.
  • Dollar value and ratio of plan v. member paid amount – Many pharmacy receipts show member and plan paid amounts on a per prescription basis, so sharing plan level data makes it easier for members to fully understand the value of the benefits you provide.

How much plan-specific data you share is up to you, but revealing some financial information to plan members can help you create an atmosphere of trust. This is especially true in a challenging economic climate when arming your members with actual values may help them understand and accept any changes that may be afoot.

Your Innoviant Account Manager is also a resource to help you communicate with your membership, especially during busy times. He or she is your reference for learning about available member marketing materials to support open enrollment, as well as for ongoing consultation for shaping your plan design to successfully balance both financial and member-access goals. In the next issue of Client Connection, we’ll look at techniques and marketing materials you can use to engage your pharmacy benefit plan members in taking an active role in their health care decisions.

Generic Utilization Part 4: Member Education Content and Resources
How Your Generic Program Helps You Strike a Balance

To wrap up our series on generics, this final installment features educational materials and resources you can use to promote generic medications to your membership. All brochures and website content included below is specifically written for the member/patient/consumer audience.

Patient Education: Generics– Provides information on generic medications from a clinical point of view.
Generics FAQ Member Brochure– Defines generic medications and takes a high-level look at both the member and plan sponsor financial impacts of using generics.
FDA Generic Medication Approval Process – This U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) web page details how generic medications are approved before they are marketed to the public. FDA.gov also features many other pages devoted to educating consumers about generic medications.

If you have questions about using Innoviant member marketing materials or for general information, please contact your Innoviant Account Manager at 1.866.800.4321. Past issues of Client Connection, including previous generics series articles, will soon be posted on the client publications page of our website.

Member Education

Through Client Connection and Innoviant.com, you have access to educational content specifically written for members that you can adapt to meet your unique member communication needs.

November is more than American Diabetes Month – it also hosts other health observances related to diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that annual diabetes costs in the U.S. are $174 billion, with $116 billion in direct costs and $58 billion in indirect costs, such as disability, work loss and premature mortality. The cost of care is two to three times greater for those with diabetes, so sharing information about diabetes with your members could contribute to managing your plan’s overall benefit costs and, most importantly, help them live healthier lives. In addition to the following pieces, the member publications page of our website features several other diabetes brochures you can use.

Diabetes

According to the American Diabetes Association, 23.6 million children and adults in the U.S. have diabetes, but nearly one quarter of them don’t know they have the disease. To learn more about diabetes, check out the following brochures:

  • Diabetes ABCs and 123s – When you have diabetes, your blood sugar (glucose) is too high. Learn more about Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, as well as tests your doctor may perform to make sure you stay as healthy as possible.
  • Diabetes Patient Action Plan – Diabetes can lead to other health problems, so following your treatment plan is the best way to stay healthy. Print a copy of this brochure and take it with you to your next visit to your doctor’s office. Together, you can fill it out so you have a record of what you need to do to manage your diabetes.
  • Controlling Your Blood Sugar – Regularly testing your blood sugar helps you and your doctor know how well you’re controlling your diabetes. This brochure defines the two different kinds of glucose tests and includes a log for recording your goals and tracking test results.

LOOKING AHEAD

Office Closure

Our offices will be closed on November 26-27 in observance of Thanksgiving.

The Innoviant Customer Service Center will remain open

November Health Observances

Health observances are days, weeks or months devoted to promoting particular health concerns. You may choose to use these special times
to sponsor health promotion events, stimulate awareness of health risks
or focus on disease prevention.

The following observances are recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the month of November. For more information about the observance or to obtain support materials, please contact the sponsoring organization directly via the websites provided.

Source: 2009 National Health Observances, National Health Information Center, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC.
 

Pharmacy Passages

 

A Customer-Directed Monthly
eNewsletter Announcing Changes to the Innoviant Preferred Products List

OPEN OCTOBER 2009 ISSUE
OF PHARMACY PASSAGES
 
Innoviant - a Prescription Solutions company