Have You Heard About Preferred Pharmacy Finder? PlanCompare ...

FALL 2012

FALL 2012

Welcome We are pleased to provide you with the Fall issue of our newsletter, DRXtra. In this issue, you will find information about our upcoming Client Summit in February of 2013. Please be sure to respond right away if you would like to reserve your spot as space is limited. In addition, this newsletter provides updates from Washington and information about some of our key products and industry research. If you have any comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

In This Edition: Pg 2 What’s New In Washington Pg 3 Mobile Field Enrollment App for iPad Pg 4 Preferred Pharmacy Finder PlanCompare Feature Enhancement Pg 5 Using Independent Market Research to Improve DRX Solutions

Todd Petersen Executive Vice President

We are planning our first Client Summit on February 6-8th, 2013 in Huntington Beach, CA. During our time together, we will be sharing our roadmap for various solutions, providing compliance and government updates, sharing new initiatives and company direction, and most importantly engaging with our clients in collaborative discussions. The event will consist of a day and a half of sessions along with great networking events. We do need to limit the number of participants, so please respond to [email protected] as soon as possible if you are interested in attending.

DRX 600 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90017 800.379.9060 | www.drx.com

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FALL 2012

What’s New In Washington DRX rolls into Fall with a sense of relief that the industry’s infrastructure built to support the ACA remains intact. Accordingly, we have renewed our scan of up-and-coming topics without missing a beat. Government systems are acquiring the ability to produce more refined cost estimates for Beneficiaries. Systems at the Federal level have been reliable at producing “good enough” estimates for some time. There is a growing appetite to take the next step. Before this development, the most commonly used period was often used to calculate cost sharing (e.g., 30 days at retail and 90 days at mail order). Now, multiple cost sharing periods are being built into the Government models and will support 30, 60 and 90 day supplies at both retail and mail order pharmacies. DRX is also seeing an increased focus on user accessibility. The Government has had technology accessibility standards since 2001 when a 1998 requirement known as “Section 508” or simply “508” was added to a law that dated back to 1973. Enforcement of 508 on technology used by Federal employees has been quite strong for years now. However, pushing the requirements onto Industry partners who serve the public on behalf of Federal agencies has ebbed and flowed over the last decade. DRX believes that we are entering a period

where stricter interpretations of 508 will prevail, resulting in increased requirements on third-party technology developers as well as data providers. Once again, DRX is leading the field in these evolving areas. We have already added 30 day mail order and 90 day retail cost sharing periods to our DrugCompare tool used by the Government. We are also educating our Federal partners as to the wide array of DrugCompare calculation options that are already available to our Industry clients. DRX has increased our 508 resources and have already ensured that the latest version of our PlanCompare product is 508 compliant “out of the box”. Wherever we identify that 508 compliance issues may be in play, we alert our Industry partners and help our clients avoid costly mistakes. DRX’s constant improvements to our DrugCompare and PlanCompare products confirm our status as market-leaders. Questions about Government Markets? Contact Jim Yocum, Executive Vice President, at 800-379-9060 x2020 ([email protected]) or John Cybulski, Vice President Government Markets, at extension 2670 (john.cybulski@drx. com).


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FALL 2012

Overwhelming Response to the New DRX Mobile Field Enrollment Application for iPad® DRX recently released the new Mobile Field Enrollment application for iPad, enabling in-field agents to take Medicare enrollment applications on or offline using the iPad. We have already been receiving rave reviews from clients and brokers alike. Clients who utilize the new tool are calling it “indispensable” with one client stating that it is “helping [them] move up in the industry and be a technology front runner.” Early adopters of the mobile market are reaching an even higher standard of compliance and efficiency. Historically, brokers needed to lug around extensive sales and marketing materials in addition to enrollment forms. Issues often arose, from temperamental fax machines to incomplete forms. The Mobile Field Enrollment Application for iPad eliminates these issues. The tool stores sales and marketing pdfs, automatically makes sure brokers have the latest enrollment forms, and submits enrollments wirelessly. Streamlining these processes into one small device has resulted in less luggage and more sales. Brokers are excited – one told us, “We have been looking for this technology for four years, and now it is finally here!” Clients are very enthusiastic about the “cleaner and more sophisticated approach” to Medicare enrollment. One noted that this has “opened the door to professionally present everything to the customer in one application and really go paperless.” They went on to state that “this [application] was the push we needed to get mobile.” The brokers enjoy all of the benefits of using the secure, cost efficient tool, seniors have responded well to enrolling on the iPad, and plan sponsors benefit from timely and efficient processing. To learn more about the DRX Mobile Field Enrollment application for iPad, please contact [email protected]. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.


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FALL 2012

Have You Heard About Preferred Pharmacy Finder? In case you haven’t heard, last year DRX launched a new product called Preferred Pharmacy Finder. This tool was designed to enable prospective and current beneficiaries to discover and better understand plans with preferential pharmacy networks. The site allows a user to enter a list of drugs that they are taking and review all the network pharmacies within their geographic area to see which pharmacies are the most cost effective. Pharmacy promotions and events can be included to alert customers of upcoming event dates. Additionally, DRX’s best-inclass therapeutic alternative database presents ways to save on medications with lower cost options. We thought this would be a nice little tool to help explain preferential pharmacy networks to consumers, and the response exceeded our expectations. With over 600,000 visits and nearly 2,000,000 page views during the last AEP, this tool became one of our most highly utilized sites. This year, we’re improving Preferred Pharmacy Finder by combining it with DRX’s other Medicare drug cost savings tool, DrugCompare for Medicare. Together these tools give prospective and current beneficiaries quick and easy access to pharmacy network optimization, monthly and annual drug cost estimates, comprehensive formulary status, and lower cost alternative comparisons. For more information on these products, contact [email protected].

PlanCompare Feature Enhancement for 2013 AEP

Many factors drive a member’s total annual out of pocket cost, not the least of which is prescription medications. Mail order now plays a very prominent role in doughnut hole avoidance and evaluating overall cost management strategy as it relates to prescriptions. This year DRX rolls out a new premium feature for Health Plans and Health Plan call centers. This additional widget will allow the user to select “Retail” or “Mail Order” at the drug level. Subsequently, the annual cost calculation will be driven off this drug level designation. Plans that offer a robust mail order drug benefit may utilize this functionality to help their members further optimize their plan choice. To learn more about this enhanced Medicine Cabinet functionality, contact [email protected]


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FALL 2012

Using Independent Market Research To Improve DRX Solutions DRX utilizes several approaches to ensure that our products stay current with the needs of our clients and their consumers. Some examples are customer feedback, user testing, and independent market research. For several years, DRX has relied on Deft Research to provide market intelligence on the shopping habits and preferences of Medicare beneficiaries. Deft’s latest ‘Age-In Study 2012’ highlighted several key messages that DRX has endeavored to address in plan comparison and enrollment products. Significant trends noted were:

4. Deft reports that the top three ways to increase overall comfort for people new to Medicare include: seamless online enrollment, professional verification after application is turned in and the ability to cancel or change the application any time during the AEP. These are consistent across the study’s five consumer profile groups.

DRX’s plan comparison and enrollment tools are designed to address Medicare consumer needs and concerns. Not only does PlanCompare offer seamless online enrollment, but our administrative tools have been modified this year to provide an 1. Consumer shopping and plan preferences even greater level of customization and faster tend to change rapidly. Health plan customer turnaround, allowing clients to easily create acquisition websites need to be able to change separate sites or paths based on consumer easily and sometimes rapidly to respond to these segmentation. In addition, our tools provide the consumer demands. ability to offer beneficiaries a greater level of detail on individual plan features by adding pharmacy 2. Consumer segmentation is becoming more selection and pricing options. sophisticated. Deft outlines five profiles for AgeIns based on their concerns with the transition into Entering into Medicare is often a confusing and Medicare. These segmented groups are ‘Changing intimidating experience for Age-Ins. It is critical Insurers’, ‘Navigating and Enrolling’, ‘Changing to stay abreast of trends and concerns with this Doctors or Hospitals’, ‘Changes in Copayments’, consumer group. DRX offers many solutions and ‘Not Concerned’. These five profiles have to simplify the plan comparison and enrollment distinct product and shopping preferences. process so that our clients can successfully increase member acquisition and retention. If 3. Top areas of concern and confusion for Age-Ins you would like more information on ways that included comparing different insurance options, DRX solutions can benefit your company, please understanding the features and benefits of plans, contact us at [email protected]. and narrowing down insurance options. About DRX DRX is the leading provider of technology solutions for web-based prescription drug comparison as well as Medicare health plan comparison and enrollment services. These services help organizations control costs and increase revenues by equipping consumers with the educational, strategic and transaction-support tools necessary to efficiently navigate today's complex healthcare marketplace. DRX data and tools are licensed by the government, America's largest health plans, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), field marketing organizations (FMOs), brokers, pharmacies, and other consumer advocates including AARP and Consumers Union. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DRX 600 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, CA 90017 800.379.9060 | www.drx.com

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