November Adler’s Drug Store Counter

From this month’s publication of Adler’s Drug Store Counter by Meredith Adler from Barclays Capital, I found two telling things.

She highlights the drug trend and generic fill rate numbers from the big PBMs (as I have done before). What it made me think about is that with Medco and CVS Caremark having lower generic fill rates, they actually have a better opportunity for lower trend in subsequent years (with the right programs to close the gap).

In another chart, she shows how different areas of the healthcare market are increasing in cost. Pharmacy is increasing at the fastest rate (as it has several of the past few years). Fortunately, it typically only represents about 15% of the healthcare costs, AND it is the easiest to influence. Patients have a lot more opportunity to research and talk with their physician about prescriptions than discussing whether a particular blood test is appropriate.