Biotechnology Healthcare - June 2008 - (Page 43) HAVE TO BE MADE SelectHealth’s injectables guidance team meets monthly. Eric Cannon, PharmD, SelectHealth’s director of pharmacy, makes a point at the Sept. 4, 2007 meeting. GROWTH IN GROWTH HORMONES For Buckley, clinical pharmacy coordinator, the heavy lifting on the growth hormone issue may be over. Today, she’s looking for evidence of the payoff. Changing the formulary for growth hormones had become a priority for SelectHealth when a newer product — selling for around 30 percent less than the most popular competitor — came on the market. Buckley believes that a formulary change can save the health plan several hundred thousand dollars a year with no ill effects on member health. Early in the year, Buckley presented clinical and financial data to a panel of endocrinology thought leaders. She wanted to limit the formulary to two options: the low-cost product and one other. Endocrinologists were on board — but each wanted their own favorite to be the other option. “What I did not expect was that there was no consensus,” Buckley says. On April 1, 2007, on the recommendation of SelectHealth’s injectables guidance team, the health plan moved two growth hormones to preferred status, leaving a competitor on the nonpreferred shelf. A three-month transition period went smoothly, as physicians and patients accepted the change with no major problems. This morning, Buckley is pulling claims data for today’s meeting, eager to see how much savings had been realized during the transition period. And the result? The health plan’s expenditures for growth hormone increased by nearly 9 percent in the second quarter. Not what she was expecting, but Buckley finds some good news in the numbers. SelectHealth paid for 15 percent more units of growth hormone during the second quarter, so MAY/JUNE 2008 · BIOTECHNOLOGY HEALTHCARE 43
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