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Do Insurance Companies Negotiate Drug Costs?

I recently was on a webinar that is outside of the Employee Benefit World.  They were talking about the negotiated prices between the different insurance companies and the drug companies.  Sun Life recently put out a newsletter that spoke to how they have managed to save millions of dollars through their negotiations.  The prescriptions they are negotiating are the high-cost drugs, and the drugs for the rare diseases.   Apparently, these negotiations are secret to each insurance company.

This is from Sun Life’s Focus Update:

“We negotiate agreements across a wide array of products. These include high-cost drugs, drugs for rare diseases and drugs for more common chronic conditions. We’ve also amended and enhanced these agreements for some originator biologics and negotiated agreements on biosimilar drugs.

These agreements aim to lower drug prices while maintaining plan sustainability and managing the financial risk associated with new and high-cost prescription drugs. They also help to ensure your plan members have access to a broad range of affordable treatment options.”

Is this a good or bad thing, I don’t know.  I guess it would depend on what receiving end you are on, the well negotiated price or the not so well price…

If you are looking for a trusted advocate for your employee benefit program, contact Glendinning Insurance Services at (250) 764-0142,

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