The move to share discounts is one of several moves drug makers and health plans are taking to try to soothe disgruntled customers. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Health insurer UnitedHealthcare, says a New York Times report, has announced that instead of keeping millions of dollars in drug company discounts, it will share them with its customers.
Dan Schumacher, president of UnitedHealthcare, says in the report that "[t]he benefit could range from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars to over a thousand."
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While not every drug pays a rebate to the insurer, Schumacher says in the report that people in high-deductible plans who buy drugs with big rebates will get the greatest savings from the move.
UnitedHealthcare's parent company also owns pharmacy benefit manager OptumRx, and the escalating prices of drugs has brought such insurers under close scrutiny from angry consumers and legislators. The move to share discounts is one of several moves drug makers and health plans are taking to try to soothe customers even as there is fighting within the industry over who's to blame for high prices.
The pharmaceutical industry has pointed at both insurers and pharmacy managers as responsible, by not sharing rebates with customers getting the prescriptions filled, while insurers for their part are blaming pharmaceutical companies for high prices while claiming that they use the discounts to lower premiums for all their customers.
But Adam J. Fein, president of research firm Pembroke Consulting, is cited saying in the report that UnitedHealthcare's action could signal a shift. Even though the insurer's new policy won't affect the vast majority of its customers, Fein says in the report that "it's one more step on the path of creating a more transparent pharmacy supply chain."
Some drugs come with large discounts, while others—for which there is little competition—have little to none. And since the whole process of discounting and pricing is conducted out of the public eye, neither patients, employers, nor the public really know how drugs are priced and whether any of the discounts actually go to the consumer.
Under pressure, it would appear, UnitedHealthcare felt compelled to take some action—and perhaps that's not surprising, considering that even the Trump administration is considering the idea of requiring private drug plans under Medicare to pass along savings to their customers.
Insurers have said that passing on savings in Medicare drug plans would end up raising premiums significantly for customers. An estimate by federal officials puts the amount saved by consumers, were the savings to be passed along, at between $45–$132 on average per person. However, that would result in an increase of premiums for Medicare beneficiaries of an average of $14–$44 a month.
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
