Tuesday Tidbits

The FEHBlog on Sunday commented on the fact that the decision of several HMOs to withdraw from the FEHB Program for 2010 is not the end of the world because federal and postal employees and annuitants nationwide have the choice of several high quality fee for service plans. The beauty of the FEHB Program lies in its competitive nature -- which means that suppliers and purchasers can freely enter and leave the market. Nevertheless, it is important for federal and postal employees in those departing plans, who total about 60,000 -- to select a replacement plan during this Open Season.

Asparity Decision Solutions is making its FEHBP Open Season decision tool freely available on the internet to federal and postal employees and annuitants. As noted previously, OPM has its own plan comparison tool on the web.

The Federal Times published an op-ed by the chief executive officer of the National Community Pharmacists Association bashing the role of prescription benefit managers in the FEHB Program. I don't buy it. The shortest path is cost savings in prescription drugs is strictly controlling access to drugs -- that's how the VA does it, and it has the means to pull it off because it runs healthcare facilities. FEHB plans generally don't. (A few group model HMOs like Kaiser do). "You want Lipitor -- so sorry we only dispense Zocor." It's tough to do that unless you control the doctors.

Speaking of Lipitor I notice that my favorite foreign company Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, an Indian company, is planning to roll out a generic version of Lipitor in the U.S., according to the Business Standard of India. Lipitor is the world's best selling prescription drug with annual sales of over $10 billion. Its manufacturer Pfizer surely will not roll over.