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March – April 2020
A message from Atheer Kaddis, vice president, Pharmacy Services
Partnership with Civica Rx: Our newest effort to provide more affordable care for our members
 In a column in this newsletter last year, I wrote about what Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is doing to tackle rising prescription drug costs. On Jan. 23, 2020, Blue Cross, together with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and 17 other Blue plans throughout the U.S., announced what may be our most ambitious effort to date: a partnership with Civica Rx.
This partnership will create a new subsidiary dedicated to lowering the cost of select generic drugs. The collaboration was formed in response to the effect of high drug costs on the health of Americans and the overall affordability of health care.
The participating Blue plans will provide $55 million to help bring lower-cost, generic medications to individuals and families. We anticipate that more Blue plans and other health industry leaders will join this innovative partnership as it moves forward.
Civica Rx is a nonprofit whose mission is to ensure that essential generic medications are accessible and affordable. It’s supported by three national philanthropies and numerous health care organizations that represent more than 1,200 U.S. hospitals and one-third of all licensed hospital beds in the country.
When it was founded in 2018, Civica Rx worked to stabilize the price and supply of essential generic medications used in hospitals. This new partnership will allow Civica Rx to expand its work by focusing on the affordability of generics outside the hospital setting. The first generic medications emanating from this initiative are expected to be available by 2022.
The Civica Rx mission closely aligns with a key Blue Cross goal: to ensure that everyone has access to safe, effective prescription medicines when they need them at a price they can afford.
You can read a blog from Daniel J. Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, on MI Blues Perspectives by clicking here. I also encourage you to check out the statistics below:
Did you know?
- Prescription drug spending makes up, on average, 22% of the insurance premium dollar — about the same percentage that’s spent on physician services.
- Generic medications account for 90% of all prescriptions. Some of them, while less costly than brand-name alternatives, have increased in price and become less affordable, leading some people to ration or avoid filling their prescriptions.
- Research suggests that the actual cost of manufacturing and distributing select high-cost generic drugs can be reduced to a fraction of their current costs. This would save patients hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
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