INDIANAPOLIS – WellPoint’s pharmacy benefit manager is offering financial incentive to its members in seven additional states for the latest generic-drug addition to its GenericSelect program.
Members who choose cholesterol-fighting Simvastatin over its brand-name statin counterparts can save approximately $30 per month in out-of-pocket costs, or $70 to $80 per prescription, according to Renwyck Elder, president of WellPoint NextRx.
Members can get up to four months of the medication for free with the switchover.The voluntary and optional program continues one of WellPoint’s goals of “protecting the affordability of healthcare,” said Elder.
GenericSelect was first rolled out in 2003 in California, and later included Georgia, Mississippi and Wisconsin. WellPoint is now offering Simvastatin through GenericSelect in Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.
“We want to encourage dialogue between members and physicians whether the product is appropriate for them,” Elder said. He stressed that the therapy, whether it be with generic or brand-name drugs, must be safe and appropriate.
In 2006, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) found that at least 14 brand-name drugs used to treat seniors with conditions such as high cholesterol and hypertension are expected to go off-patent or lose exclusivity during the next five years.
“PCMA calculated that from 2006 to 2010 the savings across the entire health system would be $49 billion as a result of these drugs going generic,” said Charles Cote, PCMA’s director of public affairs. “Increased generic utilization has also driven down costs in the Medicare prescription drug benefit.”
Cote said that researchers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently found that PBMs have expanded access to lower cost, clinically proven prescription drugs in Part D with generic-drug use exceeding 60 percent.