Pharmacy Pearls: 2021 Pharmacy Opportunities

Pharmacy Pearls: 2021 Pharmacy Opportunities

For 2021 we have identified eight opportunities for cost-savings on pharmacy spend across the network in several therapeutic areas. Here are recommendations that you can put into practice today that impact quality and/or cost of medication prescribing across the network:

1. Prefer the use of the authorized generic, insulin lispro as a cost-effective, rapid-acting insulin compared to Apidra®, Humalog®, Novolog®, Fiasp® or Afrezza®, when covered by the pharmacy benefit.
2. Avoid the use of GLP-1 agonists and DPP-4 inhibitors in combination for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
3. Write all generic extended release metformin prescriptions for Glucophage XR® to allow pharmacy substitution, to avoid writing for more expensive generic formulations of Glumetza® or Fortamet®.
4. Prefer the use of fluticasone/salmeterol Diskus, Wixela, Inhub, or fluticasone/salmeterol RespiClick® or Symbicort® (when used as a rescue inhaler for asthma in adults) as cost-effective ICS/LABA inhalers compared to Dulera®, Breo®,  and Advair®when covered by the pharmacy benefit.
5. For patients with COPD on multiple individual or combination inhalers containing ICS, LABA, and a LAMA (for example fluticasone/salmeterol and tiotropium) consider regimen simplification to Trelegy® dosed as 1 puff once daily.
6. Switch patients who are prescribed combination naproxen/esomeprazole or diclofenac/misoprostol to prescriptions for individual agents.
7. Utilize generic tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine (Truvada®)  in eligible PrEP populations.
8. For patients with Excellus commercial pharmacy plans that require the use of continuous glucose monitors (CGM), preferentially send the CGM senor, transmitter, and receiver prescriptions to a retail pharmacy rather than medical supply retailer.

For details on each of these opportunities that may be impactful in your day-to-day practice, please review the document below. You can also email the Pharmacy Team to request targeted patient lists to consider therapy switches or to request an in-person pharmacy outreach visit to hear more about any or all of our pharmacy initiatives.

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