Matt Vaadi discusses how employers can help employees make smarter drug choices. New, heavily advertised medications aren't automatically better than generics. Employers can encourage workers to discuss generic options with doctors first and try proven drugs before moving to expensive newer ones.
You know, we've looked at some of the claims data here and oftentimes some of the largest claimants across the group are on specialty pharmaceuticals. And it's stunning to me how much these things cost. You know, some of them are avoidable, some are not. Is there anything employers can do to help educate their employees on being a smarter consumer of pharmaceuticals and not ultimately blowing up the employer plan without violating HIPAA or without doing anything that's going to put them in any form of jeopardy?
Yeah, you know, communication. In the pharmacy industry, I mean, just because a drug is new does not mean it's more effective than a drug that's been out for 20 years. So a new drug does not equal better efficacy. When the commercials say, "Ask your doctor about this drug," is that really what you want to be doing, or do you want to be relying on your doctor to recommend what they think is right? You know, I would just have the conversation. Just because you see a commercial, that doesn't mean it's the best drug for you. Talk to your doctors about generic drugs that are tried and true, that are proven to be effective. And you always want to start out with a generic before you start moving to a drug that you saw on TV. So that's called step therapy, trying, trying drugs that are cost-effective, that'll work, that are tried and true. And if those don't work, you can kind of step up to other things, but you don't want to immediately go to these drugs that you see on TV because quite frankly, uh, the data that's out there, they're not the most effective in the market.
