When a mid-sized hospital system in central Louisiana was tasked with dramatically lowering pharmacy costs relative to national benchmarks for their industry, CobaltRx was engaged to find the best partner to meet the needs of this system struggling with rising health care costs.
$13.28
PER EMPLOYEE PER MONTH
This client valued transparency and stability in pricing. After receiving bids for service from three national leaders and two regional benefit management companies, CobaltRx was able to provide two bids that achieved the highest overall value for the group. One national leader provided pricing in the traditional model that relied heavily on high-dollar rebates to offset slightly higher costs at the point of sale. Within the traditional pricing model, there is no requirement to disclose how the PBM receives its revenue. The other leading bid was from a regional PBM that provided weaker rebates but offered far stronger discounts at the point of sale. This bidder also provided clarity on its pricing structure and the revenue they would earn under the contract.
By switching to a PBM that helped achieve their stated goals, this hospital system was able to shed $13.28 per employee per month from the employer portion of their pharmacy benefit plan costs from the previous year, and spent a total of $489,096 less on their pharmacy benefit plan costs than they had the prior year.
While the larger, national benefits manager showed the best pricing on paper, the smaller, regional benefits manager demonstrated better pricing at the point of sale which provided more stable monthly costs. The greater transparency in the business model was highly valued by the client.
