Stacy Van Alstyne stacyv@ifebp.org(262) 786-6710, ext. 8217
New book describes pharmacy benefit as critical component of health care management.
BROOKFIELD, WI—The health care system is moving away from treating each episode of illness separately, in favor of looking at illnesses more holistically, as part of a patient’s entire medical history. As a result, employers need to consider revamping their pharmacy benefit plans, according to authors of a new book, titled Managing Pharmacy Benefits, Second Edition.
Managing Pharmacy Benefits, published by the International Foundation, examines how carefully designed pharmacy benefits serve as a critical, integrated component of health plans. Authors F. Randy Vogenberg, R.Ph., Ph.D., and Joanne M. Sica, R.Ph., M.S., of Aon Consulting, a leading global human capital firm, outline what employers need to know when developing and evaluating the pharmacy benefits.
“Properly integrating pharmacy benefits in a health plan can mean significant savings for an employer,” said Randy Vogenberg, senior vice president with Aon Consulting. “Historical approaches to coverage resulted in misaligned incentives, providing little or no benefit to an employer’s bottom line. It’s critical that benefit managers understand all the programs that provide medications for their coverage plans to align accordingly.”
Specifically, the book details formulary considerations, drug utilization management, and pharmacy network development. In addition, it tackles timely subjects, such as:
The authors, who together have more than 60 years of experience examining pharmaceuticals and health care, provide answers to key questions decision makers need to ask regarding all aspects of pharmacy benefit design, implementation and evaluation.
“This book enables benefit managers to gain an understanding of current issues and opportunities, and learn about new benefit management approaches and programs, such as Medicare Part D,” said Joanne Sica, assistant vice president with Aon Consulting. “Each chapter presents the issues and provides a call to action for benefit managers to develop solutions that fit their organizations.”
Managing Pharmacy Benefits, Second Edition is available for purchase online at www.ifebp.org/books.asp?6054; by calling (888) 334-3327, option 4; or by e-mailing books@ifebp.org. The 191-page book is $67 ($47 for International Foundation members). For a complete list of books available from the International Foundation, please visit www.ifebp.org/bookstore.
###
The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans is the world’s largest non-profit educational association for those who serve employee benefit plans. Services include educational programs, the CEBS designation, the world’s largest employee benefits library, books, publications and a job posting service. Its 35,000 members include corporate, public, Canadian and multiemployer benefits practitioners.
Aon Corporation (www.aon.com) is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. There are 47,000 employees working in Aon’s 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions.
Aon Consulting is among the top global human resources consulting firms, with 2004 revenues of $1.247 billion and 7,000 professionals in 120 offices throughout the world. Aon Consulting delivers integrated consulting solutions to help clients with employee benefits, human resources outsourcing, compensation, communication and management consulting.
This press release contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include: general economic conditions in different countries in which we do business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed income markets that could affect the return on invested assets, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans, changes in the competitive environment, our ability to implement restructuring initiatives and other initiatives intended to yield cost savings, our ability to implement the stock repurchase program, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of investigations brought by state attorneys general, state insurance regulators, federal prosecutors, and federal regulators, the impact of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, and ERISA class actions, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company’s financial results, is contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.