DoD Mail-Order Pharmacy Evaluation.
Abstract
In FY92, the Department of Defense (DoD) spent $914 million on pharmaceuticals. A year later it spent $949 million. Concerned with DoD's pharmaceutical costs, Congress directed the department, in the DoD Appropriations Act of 1993, to establish demonstration programs in at least two areas to evaluate the use of mail-order pharmacies as one means of controlling costs. Increasingly common in the private sector, mail-order pharmacies employ a central facility to fill prescriptions and then mail them to beneficiaries for maintenance-level drugs such as high blood pressure medicines. They typically process large numbers of - prescriptions and are able to achieve economies of scale that can reduce an employer's pharmaceutical costs. Since 1991, the use of mail-order pharmacies by the private sector has more than doubled - from 12 percent to 29 percent. We evaluated DoD's two mail-order demonstration programs and project that the department will reduce its costs of providing pharmaceuticals by approximately $7.2 million a year, if it expands those programs nationwide. Beneficiaries under each program include those who are eligible for Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS) benefits, as well as Medicare-eligible beneficiaries who live in areas in which base realignment and closure (BRAC) actions have affected the availability of healthcare.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA312918
Entities
People
- Richard T. Nolan
- Samuel J. Mallette
Organizations
- LMI