How are you supposed to control pharmacy drug spend when drug price increases have decimated your budget?
Since 2014, drug prices have steadily increased as pharmaceutical manufacturers incrementally raise prices. In 2020, GoodRx identified the largest number of drugs increased in price — ever. Several prescription drug manufacturers raised prices more than 15% year-over-year.
At Kit Check, we understand your pain. When it comes to drug compliance and pharmacy budget management, it may feel like there’s no simple fix. Today, learn about our new solution that will help solve your pharmacy budget woes and move your hospital pharmacy into the 21st century.
The pandemic’s impact on drug spending
From an IQVIA Institute Report titled Global Medicine Spending and Usage Trends: Outlook to 2025, drug purchasing increased across the board for new/investigational drugs, common ICU, chronic, and acute therapies. Several factors contributed to “abnormal purchasing patterns” during the COVID-19 pandemic for both institutions and patients, including the following:
- concerns over disruption to the pharmaceutical supply chain
- increased inpatient ICU admissions requiring significant resources
- attempts to identify and find treatments for COVID-19
Will pharmacy drug spend revert to pre-pandemic levels?
COVID-19 vaccine investments are projected to add $157 billion through 2025. When you remove vaccines from the equation, market drug spend is projected to increase between 3-6% year-over-year, according to IQVIA.
This rate is consistent with drug price increases over recent years, and will continue post-pandemic. Pharmacy leaders are now tasked with footing the ever-growing bill, even as operations, staffing, and drug shortages weigh on balancing a tough budget.
Did hospital pharmacies experience more drug shortages during COVID?
Hospital pharmacists ranked drug shortage management as their number one issue to address, according to our research published in December 2020. And 86% of respondents agreed that drug shortages occurred more often due to the pandemic.
Drug shortages continue to be the #1 issue for pharmacies – this remains unchanged for the third consecutive year.
Pharmacy drug spend needs to be reigned in
With no end in sight for drug price increases, pharmacist leaders are increasingly becoming responsible for their spending.
Our research found that 60% of hospital pharmacists have been given a cost savings goal from their organization — and for 39% of those, their cost-saving goal is over $300,000.
In order to achieve optimal pharmacy budget management, pharmacists are turning to new technology solutions.
How can I reduce my pharmacy drug spend?
With inventory, staffing, compliance, and other operational priorities, pharmacy leaders are way too busy to come up with new strategies to bring down their overall pharmacy drug spend. Without a solution, many feel forced to succumb to the industry’s surging drug price increases, digging a mighty thorn into the side of a hospital’s bottom-line.
Managers have turned to price-shopping their drugs across dozens of online vendors, but this manual practice eats up precious time. And because medication prices fluctuate in real-time, your preferred vendor may have a deal on Monday, but a costly price hike before you place your next order on Friday.
We recognized that pharmacy operators needed a better tool to monitor skyrocketing drug prices, manage their overall drug budget, and empower them to optimize drug inventory.
We launched Bluesight Insights during the COVID-19 pandemic specifically for hospitals and health systems facing rising drug prices. Our solution does the hard work of monitoring drug prices for you. We provide real-time notifications when a better-priced product emerges, or if a competitor lowers their price. We also keep track of historical pricing data, so you can rest assured knowing you’re saving money.
How do we know? Our customers average a return-on-investment in just 45 days. We’ve helped them save millions already.
Bluesight Insights is a comprehensive pharmaceutical supply chain management solution, combining GPO compliance, shortage management, and 340B insights.
Volatile drug pricing is here to stay. Instead of wondering how you’ll justify an increase in your pharmacy budget, book a demo today and learn how Bluesight Insights will remedy soaring drug prices for your pharmacy.