However, in a study published today by the Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy, while savings opportunities from these programs were found, the savings may not be enough to justify the costs plan sponsors would incur educating physicians and patients on the benefits of changing to a single, less expensive dose, also known as dose consolidation.

In the study, researchers at pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts examined pharmacy claims for more than 500,000 members of a large mid-Atlantic health plan from November 2002 to February 2003. They sought to determine if physicians that prescribed twice-daily doses of certain medicines for plan members would prescribe more efficient once-daily doses for medications where Food and Drug Administration (FDA) dosing recommendations allow once daily doses.

Doctors and a group of their patients were sent a letter detailing the benefits of changing from twice-daily to once-daily dosing. This is called dose consolidation. Although the twice-daily dosages had a lower strength, they each cost the same per tablet, capsule or caplet as the higher strength single dose, thus doubling the cost.

The researchers found that approximately 9% of the physicians who received dose consolidation letters changed their patients' prescriptions to a once-daily dose. The study also found that 4% of physicians switched their patients to a once-daily dose even without being contacted representing a natural dose consolidation rate. These additional physicians were part of a randomly assigned control group that did not receive letters.

Financial modeling showed that the plan sponsor would save only $0.02 to $0.03 per member per month (PM
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Contact: Derrell Carter
derrell.carter@express-scripts.com
314-702-7584
Express Scripts, Inc.
23-Sep-2004