CVS Caremark Annual Insights Report Points to Success in Controlling Pharmacy Costs in a Challenging Economy

WOONSOCKET, R.I., July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) today released its 2010 Insights Report, which provides an annual review of drug trend performance for the company's pharmacy benefit management (PBM) client segments, including employers, health plans and third party administrators. The 2009 drug trend shows that CVS Caremark clients were able to manage pharmacy costs in the midst of the economic recession without passing along added costs to their members.  In addition, plan sponsors increased their overall use of generics.  These factors helped plan sponsors manage their costs while minimizing out-of-pocket costs for their members.  

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"While each of our client segments had different approaches and leveraged different tools, they all shared a priority in 2009 – finding ways to manage pharmacy costs," said Per Lofberg, President of CVS Caremark's pharmacy benefit management business.  "In these challenging economic times we worked with our clients to implement plan designs that would enable them to continue to control pharmacy costs while still providing their members with access to the medications they need, programs to support medication adherence and opportunities for out-of-pocket savings."

Although clients were focused on managing pharmacy costs, they did so without passing along added costs to their members.  In fact, plan sponsors made few changes to member contribution levels last year, with member contribution actually declining from 19 percent in 2008 to 15.7 percent in 2009.  In addition, plan sponsors embraced opportunities to educate their members about the benefits of generic medications and encourage their use.  This resulted in the CVS Caremark Book of Business generic dispensing rate (GDR) increasing to 68.2 percent from 65.1 percent in 2008, despite a lack of significant generic drug introductions in 2009.

The Insights Report reviews each of the client segments supported by CVS Caremark and provides an overview of performance by segment, with a special focus on Best-in-Class measures.  Overall Book of Business trend (excluding Medicare Part D) was 3.4 percent, or 2.4 percent excluding specialty pharmacy.  Specialty pharmacy trend for the full Book of Business was 11 percent.  Best-in-Class trend by segment was 1.7 percent for health plans, 1.9 percent for third party administrators and 2.4 percent for employers.

Access the full 2010 Insights Report in the publication section at the following link: http://www.caremark.com/wps/portal/client

About CVS Caremark

CVS Caremark is the largest pharmacy health care provider in the United States. Through our integrated offerings across the entire spectrum of pharmacy care, we are uniquely positioned to provide greater access, to engage plan members in behaviors that improve their health, and to lower overall health care costs for health plans, plan sponsors and their members. CVS Caremark is a market leader in mail order pharmacy, retail pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, and retail clinics, and is a leading provider of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans. As one of the country's largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), we provide access to a network of more than 64,000 pharmacies, including approximately 7,000 CVS/pharmacy® stores that provide unparalleled service and capabilities. Our clinical expertise includes one of the industry's most comprehensive disease management programs. General information about CVS Caremark is available through the Company's Web site at http://info.cvscaremark.com.

SOURCE CVS Caremark