Health Insurance Exchanges (HIXs) come in two basic flavors:  Public Exchanges and Private Exchanges.  Let’s take a moment to define them and outline the stark differences between the two.

Both types of HIXs were originally created to allow individual people to pick their own health plans from a wide selection of offerings from multiple insurance carriers.  More choice and greater competition are meant to bring the promise of lower rates.
Continue reading “Public vs. Private Health Insurance Exchanges – How are they different?”

The independent actuary for the city of Brockton recently reported that KTP’s structural recommendations and competitive process reduced the city’s Annual Required Contribution (ARC) by $10 million and its OPEB liability by about $160 million.

Actuary’s letter details reductions in retiree benefits costs and liability before and after KTP

Click here to read in Benefits Magazine what KTP’s very own Barry Eyre and Mark Whitcher have to say about how municipalities and Taft-Hartley Funds can reduce the annual cost of retiree health benefits and cut millions from their OPEB liability, without cutting benefits or increasing costs to retirees.

Walgreens, the largest drug store chain in United States, AmerisourceBergen, the country’s second largest drug wholesaler, and Alliance Boots, one of the largest pharmacy chains and drug wholesalers in Europe, announced a 10-year distribution deal that creates a global, vertically-integrated partnership with total revenue of approximately $180 billion. See related blog post here.

Walgreens’s main purpose for partnering with the others is to increase its purchasing clout for generic drugs in order to extract price concessions from pharmaceutical manufacturers and lower its cost of goods sold. The company will be able to leverage the size and buying scale of AmerisourceBergen and Alliance Boots to buy generic drugs at cheaper prices. This could give Walgreens a significant advantage over its rivals.

Continue reading “Impact of Walgreens/Alliance Boots/AmerisourceBergen Deal on Insurance Coverage for Generic Medications”

In a game changing move, three of the major players in the prescription drug marketplace recently announced a partnership to create the largest drug purchaser in the world. The move that could transform the way medications are bought and sold globally.

Walgreens, the largest drug store chain in United States, AmerisourceBergen, the country’s second largest drug wholesaler, and Alliance Boots, one of the largest pharmacy chains and drug wholesalers in Europe, announced a 10-year distribution deal that creates a global, vertically-integrated partnership with total revenue of approximately $180 billion.

There are several market forces driving the deal, including razor-thin margins for drug wholesalers, the explosion of generic drugs due to the expiration of brand drug patents, high margins on generic drugs for PBMs and retail drugstore chains, and slow growth in the absolute number of prescriptions written per year.

Walgreens’s main purpose for partnering with the others is to increase its purchasing clout for generic drugs in order to extract price concessions from pharmaceutical manufacturers and lower its cost of goods sold. The company will be able to leverage the size and buying scale of AmerisourceBergen and Alliance Boots to buy generics at cheaper prices. This could give Walgreens a significant advantage over its rivals. Today, generic drugs make up the majority of all prescription drug fills and they are expected to total 90% of all fills within five years.
Continue reading “Walgreens Strikes Drug Distribution and Minority Equity Deal – Transforms Global Drug Market”

NEWPORT, R.I. – March 19, 2013 –The Delaware Valley Health Care Coalition (DVHCC), the largest association of Taft-Hartley funds, labor unions, and government entities in the United States with over two million covered individuals across more than 240 member groups, has selected KTP Advisors as its exclusive vendor on retiree health benefit plans.

Following a competitive process, the Philadelphia-based coalition chose KTP for its expertise on retiree health care and its track record at reducing its clients’ unfunded liability for retiree health care without reducing benefits and increasing retiree costs, said DVHCC officials.

“DVHCC members have been searching for ways to lessen the impact of continuing to offer retiree benefits to their participants. After meeting with several firms offering a variety of services, we selected KTP Advisors. KTP made an outstanding presentation and proposed a solution which best fits the needs of our membership.” explained DVHCC President Matthew Kearney.

“Being chosen as the advisor on retiree health benefits for the DVHCC is an honor,” said Mark Whitcher, CEO of KTP Advisors. “We look forward to working with the individual funds to ensure they receive the best advice and their retirees continue to receive the health benefits they expect at the lowest possible price in the market.”

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The Delaware Valley Health Care Coalition (DVHCC), based in Philadelphia, is the largest coalition of Taft-Hartley funds, labor unions, governmental entities and school districts in the United States with over one million covered lives across 245 groups. The purpose of the DVHCC is to provide quality health benefit plans and services at discounted pricing not available to non-Members. For more information on the DVHCC, visit www.dvhcc.com

To download a copy of this article for your reference, or to share with others, click here.

Click here to read about Today’s Keys for Lowering Drug Costs written by KTP’s very own Barry Eyre for CFO.com.

For more information, please contact Barry Eyre: beyre@ktpadvisors.com or 401.490.9365

Click here to read what CFO.com, with the help of KTP’s very own Mark Whitcher, has to say about the Private Health-Exchange Market.

For more information, please contact Mark Whitcher: mwhitcher@ktpadvisors.com or 401.490.9351

Click here to find out what Governing.com has to say about KTP’s approach to solving the OPEB puzzle.

For more information, please contact Barry Eyre:  beyre@ktpadvisors.com or 401.490.9365

The cost of specialty drugs, injectable or tablet form used to treat complex medical conditions, is growing at an annual rate of over 20 percent. At current utilization rates, the cost of new and existing specialty drugs is predicted to total 40 percent of the cost of providing pharmacy benefits to employees and their dependents by 2016. These statistics are a composite of data from ESI, Caremark, Optum, and Medco reports.

In addition to market factors driving overall cost increases, the absence of generic substitutes and brand-name competition gives drug manufacturers near-monopoly pricing power and makes conventional benefit design and utilization management less effective than when applied to traditional brands and generics.

As plan sponsors explore options to better manage the cost of specialty drugs as part of employee health benefits, beware of nuances that only health care professionals are apt to understand.
Continue reading “Containing Future Drug Spend Hinges on One Word: Specialty”