Looking at untapped ways to control drug costs

Health plans and health systems can find ways to control drug costs that they may not have recognized.

Ryan Czado, chief pharmacy officer from RazorMetrics, talks about some ways that providers and payers can find more value and savings in pharmacy.

He says organizations need to focus on both the clinical efficacy and proper utilization of those drugs, ensuring that they are the right drugs for the right patients.

“I think it's really shifting the mindset from finding the best price and keeping everybody on the same drugs to now, let's find the best drug. And it could be, and more often than not, there's a lower cost option for the therapy they’re on today,” he says.

RazorMetrics is focused on working with organizations to work within their existing plan designs. “We're providing information to the providers around a lower cost option that's within the formulary,” Czado says.

The company also helps organizations get better insights on patients who may be on a number of different medications.

“If the patient is seeing providers in multiple different systems, there may not be integration and coordination between that care,” Czado says. “And so what we're doing is basically providing the full movement profile within polypharmacy. We're providing information around biosimilar coverage and biosimilar options, and then basically allowing for them to make a decision on what's best for the patient.”

Check out more insights from Ryan Czado and learn more about RazorMetrics in this video.