Express Scripts’ 2012 Drug Trends Report provides an interesting picture of the trends experienced by their clients.  ESI has a pretty strong presence among the State Funds, with California and New York two of the larger ones served by the St Louis-based PBM.

As noted last week, you can’t compare statistics from one PBM to the next without ensuring you understand and factor in the definitions, formulae, claimant population and methodology/time frames used by the PBMs in question.

ESI’s stake in the ground is in avoiding “waste”, defined as “any additional spend on pharmacy costs that provides no incremental benefit in treatment outcomes.” Prescribing branded drugs when generics are available, maximizing home delivery, avoiding potentially abused drugs – all contribute to waste and thus higher costs and poorer outcomes.

A couple of interesting data points; ESI’s researchers determined that using non-morphine pain medications (typically synthetic opioids e.g. OxyContin) instead of morphine-containing meds “could have cost $1,172 in additional spend per injured worker for each year during which narcotic medications were used.” The point was specific to claimants receiving long-acting opioids relatively early in the treatment process, with ESI contending other, less expensive drugs are likely more appropriate.

Lead clinician TIm Pokorney RPh and his colleagues also looked at compounds and copacks; potency was “much higher than intended in MIssouri and Texas”, a particularly frightening finding given the well-publicized problems with compounds’ safety.

ESI’s average client saw trend increase 2.9% in 2012, driven by a 3.2% increase in the cost per script.  Oxycontin remained the top drug in terms of cost, at 9.7 percent of spend, however overall usage of narcotics was down 2.7% – a welcome change and one mirrored by other PBMs’ results.

Drugs that saw significant more utilization year-over-year include generic morphine, Cymbalta(R) gabapentin and oxycodone – all used for treating pain. On the positive side, utilization of Opana(R) ER and Oxycontin both declined dramatically. Clearly ESI’s efforts to move claimants from branded drugs to generics are paying off.

Progress.

Florida’s legislature is working thru several workers’ comp bills – and the news isn’t good.  A PDMP bill has been emasculated; Florida’s prescription drug monitoring program won’t require physicians check the system before prescribing drugs.

And while there’s ongoing negotiations on a bill addressing physician-dispensed drugs, at this point it looks like Florida’s employers will have to pay more for physician-dispensed drugs than they would if those drugs were dispensed by retail pharmacies.

This is a fluid situation and may well change – and we can only hope it does. We are also wondering where the retail pharmacies and food/drug combos are in the discussion; there is no evidence that physicians pay more for their drugs than drug stores do, so forcing employers and taxpayers to cough up millions to line the pockets of dispensers and their enablers is nothing more than extortion.

That said, it is clear that the Florida Medical Association has once again ignored their Hippocratic oath to do no harm; according to Mike Whitely’s piece in WorkCompCentral the FMA  got the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mike Fasano R New Port Richey, to “drop a requirement that Florida physicians consult the PDMP before prescribing drugs on Schedules II and III of the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s controlled substances list.”

Notably Rep. Fasano appears to have removed that requirement in hopes that in so doing the bill would have a better chance of passage.  That said, the FMA’s position is short-sighted and self-serving.  According to the vice chair of the FL PDMP Foundation, it “makes sense for doctors to check the database and it takes 30 seconds.” [emphasis added].

So.  Thirty seconds is more important to the FMA – and their members – than preventing doctor-shopping, reducing criminal behavior, and saving lives.

Lest you think I’m being hyperbolic, doctor shopping kills people. And speaking about the Tennessee law requiring docs check the PDMP database before prescribing, “There’s no question the law there will reduce overprescribing and doctor-shopping, said Gary Zelizer, director of government affairs for the Tennessee Medical Association. Yet reducing over-prescribing, doctor-shopping, and the resulting deaths and injuries is less important than saving 30 seconds.

For those interested in doctor-shoppers’ views on PDMPs, read this.  Abusers hate PDMPs that mandate physician checks of the PDMP before prescribing.

According to the NYTimes, the FDA’s ongoing investigation into compounding pharmacies:

“found numerous unsafe practices at about 30 compounding pharmacies, the same type of facility responsible for the tainted drug that caused a deadly meningitis outbreak last year.

Among the problems found were unidentified black particles floating in vials of supposedly sterile medicines, rust and mold in clean rooms where such drugs are made, improper air flow, and clothing that left workers’ skin exposed.” [emphasis added]

If they aren’t, workers’ comp payers and medical management firms should be paying very close attention to these inspections.  There are three problems with compounds – they tend to be very costly, there is zero evidence that they help the healing process, and there is a wealth of evidence (see above) that compounds can be very dangerous – if not lethal.

Workers’ comp claimants harmed by compounds will incur expenses to address that harm – expense that will have to be covered by the workers’ comp payer.

The payer may also have to provide death benefits for claimants killed by compounds.

States that currently have a compounding problem are likely to see it grow – as it has in California.  States enjoying a compound-free experience are almost certain to be targeted by compounders and their enablers.

The list of FDA-inspected compounders is here.