Strategies for managing injectable drugs in a managed care setting

Injectable medications represent one of the fastest growing and most expensive categories of prescription drugs with costs rising to $26 billion by 2006. Historically, managed care organizations have not aggressively overseen this area of the prescription benefit, resulting in a disjointed system. However, a growing number of MCOs are developing programs to better manage injectable medications. Key components of these programs include sophisticated infrastructure, clinical management, consolidated databases, and improved pharmaceutical contracting. This article presents a new model for managing injectables, illustrated by the implementation of a comprehensive injectables' management program for a large managed care population that resulted in a 12:1 return on investment.