write only 2 to 3 line comment to each of these discussion answers

FIRST DISCUSSION:

Pharmaceutical drugs

The expanded cost of specialty care drugs has a resounding impact on employers. Taking into account an aging workforce who is retiring later in their careers, increasing health insurance costs as a result of rising costs on specialty drugs significantly impact employers’ bottom line. Yet, many employers do not know what specialty drugs are and/or how their rising costs impacts them. According to recent surveys conducted by the Midwest Business Group on Health, 78 percent of employer respondents had a low to moderate understanding of specialty pharmacy costs, and nearly 30 percent did not know what their specialty pharmacy cost increases had been over recent years.

Currently, specialty drugs account for 17 percent of the average employer’s overall pharmacy costs, but it’s estimated they’ll make up 40 percent of the average employer’s overall pharmacy costs by 2020. In 2013, it is reported that 23 percent of employer sponsored health plans placed specialty drugs in their own group, or in which consumers were asked to pay a percentage of the drug cost rather than a set co-payment. In 2006, just 5 percent of employer plans had a specialty tier. As this trend is likely to continue in new plans offered through health insurance market places, it’s important for employers to proactively manage specialty drug costs within the health insurance plans that they have.

There are several ways employers can minimize specialty care drug costs. First, employers can make sure employees understand their benefits, and in particular, their out of pocket costs. This empowers employees to make smart, financially sound decisions about appropriate health care needs and costs. In addition, employers can provide education and coaching about specialty drug dosages, side effects and adverse reactions. This is to ensure that when medical situations arise, employees will be better informed about their options and make decisions that are appropriate for their specific medical needs.

Working with a benefits manager, employers can also establish baselines, using data to determine what illness or specialty drugs are most relevant to their business and/or industry. This way, employers can be knowledgeable about which illnesses will have the greatest effect on their employees. And finally, employers can self-educate themselves to stay up to date on the latest trends and the drug pipeline in the specialty drug market. Since the specialty drug pipeline has accelerated recently, it is imperative for employers to know the types of drugs hitting the market as well as their costs so they can evaluate and adapt measures to maintain their health insurance costs.

Drug store expenses are ascending in abundance of general and restorative cost swelling, prompting calls for cost and use controls by open and private payers. Such controls would be insufficient and counterproductive in light of the fact that they would endeavor to turn around two significant, memorable wonders at work in the U. S. medicinal services framework. The additional costs related with achievement meds speak to a noteworthy auxiliary move from the arrangement of customary restorative administrations to the utilization of therapeutic items; they likewise speak to the formation of financial, social, and general wellbeing utility that we esteem as a general public.

The balkanization of restorative conveyance, organized under customary repayment techniques and aroused by government law, does not sufficiently represent or proficiently oblige this pivot and expanded utility. Government and state laws directing health care coverage and supplier hazard sharing should be patched up to support instead of oblige the social advance epitomized in costly, leap forward medicinal innovations.

SECOND DISCUSSION:

Prescription Drug Prices

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