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CAMP HILL, Pa. — A new prescription drug program from Rite Aid Corp. and its EnvisionRx pharmacy benefit management arm gives patients with chronic conditions more flexibility in getting their maintenance medications.
Rite Aid’s Jocelyn Konrad
Called Rx90, the program enables patients to fill 90-day prescriptions at any of Rite Aid’s nearly 4,600 pharmacies or, for the same price, to have their medications delivered via the EnvisionPharmacies mail service.
Rite Aid noted that Rx90 provides access to the largest 90-day retail maintenance medication network, encompassing more than 12,000 total pharmacies, and features reduced co-payments, giving most members 15 to 30 days of free coverage.
Also through the program, patients receive integrated care and clinical support from Rite Aid pharmacists and EnvisionRx as well as targeted, disease-specific communications.
Such benefits are key to helping patients adhere to their medications and improve their health outcomes, especially as they shoulder a heavier burden in health care expenditures, according to Rite Aid.
Citing a Towers Watson study of employer-provided health care, the company said consumers’ share of health care costs — including premiums and out-of-pocket costs — rose to 37% in 2014 from 34.4% in 2011, for an average increase of about $100 a month.
Envision’s Frank Sheehy
“Rite Aid is excited to work with EnvisionRx to bring an innovative pharmacy solution for consumers, health plans and employers to market,” Jocelyn Konrad, executive vice president of pharmacy at Rite Aid, said in a statement. “Rx90 is a great example of how our pharmacies and PBMs can collaborate to achieve our shared goal of improving the patient experience and care, while reducing and managing health care costs.”
Twinsburg, Ohio-based EnvisionRx said its client-specific data and research enables it to provide health plans and employers with recommendations on customizing benefit design, communications and clinical strategies. To that end, Rx90 can help plan sponsors rein in drug spend and medical expenses from increased patient visits to doctors and emergency rooms and extended hospitalizations.
“In today’s market, plan sponsors and their members need a PBM that truly provides more flexible, affordable options to control the costs of chronic care,” stated EnvisionRxOptions chief executive officer Frank Sheehy. “Rx90 and our technology platform give plan sponsors another way to customize their prescription drug benefit plan and put actionable, cost-saving information in the hands of their members.”
Rite Aid closed its acquisition of Envision in June 2015 after announcing the $2 billion deal that February. In an interview last fall, Sheehy said interest was high in what the combination of Envision and Rite Aid could bring to the table and that the companies were exploring a number of potential offerings, including improved pricing on 90-day supplies of maintenance drugs filled through Rite Aid.
“Our combined analytic capabilities will allow us to create insightful plan design approaches and recommendations that we can give to plan sponsors, as well as more effective methods to reach out to our members,” Sheehy told Chain Drug Review. “And I think we have the opportunity to create programs that reward members for choosing the lower-cost channel to get their prescriptions filled, whether it’s retail pharmacies or mail.”
New programs from pharmacy providers are drawing more attention as the nation’s health care system strives to improve health outcomes and control skyrocketing costs, for both patients and payers, according to Rite Aid chairman and chief executive officer John Standley.
“I think there’s a growing understanding that pharmacy compliance is a huge part of managing chronically ill patients. If you look at things like Star Ratings and how the government and other payers now want to pay for health care services, there’s a view that a lot more can be done by retail pharmacy,” Standley said in an interview with Chain Drug Review last November.
“We see chronic patients more than any other provider in the health care market space, so I think we have a huge opportunity to be impactful in their care,” he added.
