title: Health plans' strategies to control prescription drug spending.
abstract: A number of recent studies have documented the sizable impact of consumer cost sharing without accounting for the other drug management strategies being adopted simultaneously. This qualitative case study of five of California's largest health plans examines the strategies and methods used to control prescription drug use and spending. Higher cost sharing is being used increasingly. Concurrently, major administrative efforts directed at physicians-including rules, incentives, and education-are being undertaken. These efforts have focused on lowering the cost per prescription by emphasizing generic substitution and therapeutic interchange of less costly drugs.
authors.affiliation: Schneider Institute for Health Policy, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA. wallack@brandeis.edu
authors.forename: Stanley S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Wallack
authors.forename: Dana Beth
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Weinberg
authors.forename: Cindy Parks
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D002140:California; D003363:Cost Control / Q000379:methods*; D017047:Cost Sharing; D016527:Drug Costs; D005102:Health Expenditures; D007343:Insurance Carriers / Q000191:economics*