November 22, 2013 
Last week, I noticed three recent reports that have come out about specialty pharmacy. I haven’t had a chance to really dig in to them , but I thought I’d pull out a few of the PR highlights and share the report links here.
The first report is from the Center for Healthcare Supply Chain Research and Health Strategies Group — “Specialty Pharmacy: Implications of Alternative Distribution Models” — which looks at how providers are using buy-and-bill and white bagging.
Karen J. Ribler, Executive Vice President and COO of the Center, notes, “Distributing specialty pharmaceuticals is complex; curbing costs is just one of the many facets of providing patient-centered healthcare. Site-of-care and day-of administration dosage requirements revealed themselves as determining factors for supporting the use of one method over another. A critical look at unintended consequences leads to our conclusion that Buy and Bill is, for the time being, the preferred model for practitioners of medium to large oncology clinics, but that could change as specialty treatments evolve.”
CVS Caremark just released their report Specialty Trend Management – Where To Go Next. In there, they say:
Infusions are increasingly being done in a hospital setting where the costs for both the drug and its administration can be the highest of all potential sites of care. For example, costs for a standard dose of a drug for rheumatoid arthritis can vary from $3,259 for the drug and $148 for administration when infused at the patient’s home to $5,393 for the drug and $425 for the administration when infused as an outpatient procedure at a hospital. In fact, the hospital setting is typically the least cost-effective site of care for infusions. (source)
As I’ve been doing lots of work lately in identifying and segmenting the population for Population Health Management, I found this chart interesting:
http://lab.express-scripts.com/prescription-drug-trends/specialty-drug-spending-to-jump-67-by-2015/
And, last month, Prime Therapeutics released a report on Specialty Pharmacy which I blogged about.
Enabling Healthy Decisions 
George – Surprised there were no comments. Our paper brings the patient into the conversation…B&B is more patient-centered than white bagging, which will ultimately reduce healthcare cost. This is not usually spotlighted in most discussions.
Karen
Karen J. Ribler
Executive Vice President & COO
Center for Healthcare Supply Chain Research
formerly HDMA Foundation
(703) 885-0256
http://www.HCSupplyChainResearch.org
The Center for Healthcare Supply Chain Research is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization that serves as the knowledge partner of the Healthcare Distribution Management Association (HDMA). The Center serves the healthcare industry by providing research and education focused on healthcare supply chain issues. The Center’s mission is twofold: to conduct research and disseminate information that will enhance the knowledge base, efficiency and effectiveness of the total healthcare supply chain; and to provide thought leadership to further enhance the safety and security of the healthcare supply chain through future-focused study and programming.
I’d love to comment, but I’ve been so busy that I only had a chance to skim it.