As employers and sufferers wrestle with rising prescription drug prices and restricted pricing transparency, a number of options have emerged to assist decrease bills. One strategy is the cost-plus mannequin, the place a drug’s value relies on its manufacturing price plus a set markup.
And Navitus Well being Options, another pharmacy profit supervisor, is the most recent to leap on the cost-plus practice. The corporate introduced final week that it’s launching a cost-plus pricing mannequin by Costco Pharmacy. It’ll change into obtainable for shoppers beginning in January for prescriptions stuffed at retail and mail order places.
By way of this mannequin with Costco, drug prices can be based mostly on what Costco pays to accumulate a drug, along with a set markup and charge for pharmacy providers the corporate presents. This is applicable to a broad vary of generic and model medicines, in keeping with Navitus. And with Navitus’s pass-through PBM mannequin, all reductions and rebates can be handed again to shoppers.
“Costco has lengthy supported the Navitus PBM mannequin to take away pointless prices from the drug provide chain,” mentioned Diana Gibson Tempo, chief progress officer for Navitus Well being Options, in an e-mail. “We additionally acknowledge the pharmacy panorama is beneath rising strain as drug prices proceed to rise and as plan sponsors, shoppers and regulators demand extra transparency. Launching a cost-plus mannequin with Costco Pharmacy was a pure step. This cost-plus pricing mannequin displays a shared dedication between Navitus and Costco to deal with rising drug prices by industry-leading buying energy, transparency and ease.”
Navitus members that dwell inside an hour of a Costco Pharmacy may obtain same-day prescription supply by Instacart for gratis.
As well as, Costco has been designated as a NavitusClear accomplice, which is a designation given to companions that “exemplify the extent of transparency in drug pricing we consider must be the {industry} norm,” in keeping with Navitus. Different corporations with this designation embody Lumicera Well being Options and CivicaScript.
Richard Stephens, senior vp of Costco Pharmacy, mentioned in a press release that the corporate is “proud to be [Navitus’s] first community pharmacy accomplice to ship to their shoppers extremely aggressive, totally auditable drug prices of prescription medicines. We really feel this degree of transparency is a optimistic step to offer payers a instrument to successfully handle drug spend.”
A number of different corporations supply a cost-plus mannequin. One of the well-known is Mark Cuban Price Plus Drug Firm, which takes the associated fee to fabricate a drug after which provides a 15% markup, a charge for pharmacy labor and a charge for delivery.
GoodRx, a prescription financial savings firm, additionally not too long ago launched a cost-plus pricing mannequin for impartial pharmacies. On this mannequin, the worth of a drug relies on the Nationwide Common Drug Acquisition Price (NADAC), plus a set dishing out charge plus a set GoodRx admin charge.
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