Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy achieves 95 percent member satisfaction

Related study shows satisfied specialty pharmacy members more likely to be adherent to their biologic anti-inflammatory medicines

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Prime Therapeutics LLC

Dec 02, 2014, 09:00 ET

ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- It's no surprise people living with complex illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis can improve their quality of life by staying on their prescribed medicines. But now there's evidence that high member satisfaction with the specialty pharmacy providing these medicines is associated with adherence success, according to a new research by Prime Therapeutics LLC (Prime).

Prime identified the connection by studying data from two sources. First, Prime conducts a quarterly survey to measure member experience with Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy.¹ Prime's members are asked to rate their recent service experiences. Third quarter 2014 survey results revealed:

95 percent of members using Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy reported being either satisfied or very satisfied with their customer service experience – the fifth consecutive quarter where member satisfaction exceeded 90 percent, and
79 percent of these members were very satisfied.

The following areas drove Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy's 95 percent satisfaction rating:

members felt Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy helped make medications more affordable
members cited delivery, communication, customer service, and refill reminders as top performance attributes
members ranked the performance of Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy's member services team exceptionally well, above 90 percent, on all attributes such as "treats me like a valued customer, ease of use, communication, provides helpful information, committed to solving my issue or problem, follow up and knowledge."

"Very few service companies, especially health care companies, receive member experience ratings this high," said Ingrid Lindberg, Prime's chief member experience officer. "We've been laser-focused on improving our member experience on every level. So we're extremely pleased members feel valued and that we are meeting and exceeding their needs. We'll continue on this path of excellence because every member's health matters."

Next, Prime's researchers analyzed the association between Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy's member satisfaction results and adherence levels among members taking biologic anti-inflammatory drugs, a commonly used specialty drug. Using 2013 satisfaction ratings and prescription data from 187 members over a six month period of time, Prime found that biologic anti-inflammatory users – who reported being satisfied or very satisfied with Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy and their health plan – were 2.8 times more likely to be adherent compared to those who reported being not satisfied.

Prime's new analysis of satisfaction and adherence results adds to the limited body of research on the subject. Additionally, this latest analysis complements two previous Prime research studies showing:

members with multiple sclerosis or an autoimmune disorder who used Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy, had lower medical care costs – about six percent less – than those using another pharmacy (which results in a savings of $313 less per member every 6 months)², and
specialty drug adherence was higher among members using Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy compared to a standard retail pharmacy.³

"An excellent experience is the foundation for keeping members satisfied and adherent to their specialty regimens, which in turn can help improve quality of life and lower total costs," added Duane Barnes, Prime's chief operating officer. "This is extremely important given that treatments for specialty conditions are often complicated and expensive. We're committed to helping our members who use Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy with benefit coordination, financial assistance and care management services so they can ultimately feel better and live well."

About Prime Therapeutics
Prime Therapeutics LLC (Prime) helps people get the medicine they need to feel better and live well. Prime manages pharmacy benefits for health plans, employers, and government programs including Medicare and Medicaid. The company processes claims and delivers medicine to members, offering clinical services for people with complex medical conditions. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., Prime serves more than 25 million people. It is collectively owned by 13 Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, subsidiaries or affiliates of those plans. Prime has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation.

For more information, visit www.primetherapeutics.com or follow @Prime_PBM on Twitter.

¹ Prime Therapeutics, LLC. "Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy Customer Experience Research," Q3 2014.

² Internal Prime Therapeutics analysis, March 2014.

³ Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy assessment of adherence compared to retail pharmacies for three specialty categories." C.I. Starner, S. Sanchez, R. McMahan, P.P. Gleason, Prime Therapeutics LLC. Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, April 3, 2014. http://blog.primetherapeutics.com/blog/prime-therapeutics-microsites/presenting-new-pharmacy-insights

Methodology for Prime Therapeutics Specialty Pharmacy's Customer Experience Research: The quarterly member satisfaction survey is conducted by an independent research firm, ORC International. Prime Therapeutics members, who placed an order with Prime Specialty Pharmacy in May, June, and July of 2014, were contacted via telephone during third quarter, 2014. Results can be interpreted at the 95% confidence interval with an error margin of: +5.6%.

Methodology for Prime's analysis of customer satisfaction: related to customer adherence: Conducted by Prime's internal clinical research team, 526 members were identified as completing a Prime Specialty Pharmacy member satisfaction survey in 2Q or 3Q 2013. Of that number, researchers then identified 187 members with a biologic anti-inflammatory (BAI) agent pharmacy claim between 4/1/13 and 9/30/13 and were continuously enrolled for the 6 months following their first claim in that time period (index claim). The proportion of days covered (PDC) method was used to calculate 6 month adherence rates. Among the BAI users 73.3% (137) had a PDC of 80% or higher and were considered adherent. Unadjusted analyses demonstrated a significant association within the BAI group between member satisfaction with their health plan and Prime Specialty pharmacy and adherence (relative risk 2.7, p=0.028). After multivariate model adjustment the association remained significant.