How alternative medication sourcing can quickly create huge savings for your business
Just as clothes, food and home supplies can cost more depending on where you buy them, drugs can also vary wildly in price.
Many business owners know that they can’t afford to keep spending as much as they are on their benefits plan. The prospect of big changes, however, can be intimidating, even when they understand that the ultimate goal is to create huge savings that can help them grow their business.
Related: Prescription drug prices in U.S. more than 2.5 times higher than in other countries
One of the quickest and easiest ways to create big savings in your benefits plan is to have your advisor find alternative sources for your employees’ medication. Rather than accepting the astronomical expenses of drugs, your advisor can find less costly sources that provide the exact same medication for a fraction of the price. It’s a simple change that can create incredible savings for your business, and your employees have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
An unnecessarily costly expense
Just as clothes, food and home supplies can cost more depending on where you buy them, drugs can also vary wildly in price depending on their source. Many insurance plans don’t allow alternative sourcing, but working with a great advisor can allow your employees to have the exact same medication for a fraction of the cost. Better yet, your advisor may be able to arrange for your employees’ drugs to be sent directly to their home, saving them time as well as money. There’s no reason for you and your employees to spend so much money on an expense that can so easily be slashed by thousands of dollars.
Zeroing in on easy savings
Focusing on medication-based savings can save your business tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, even if you have only one employee who needs just one expensive drug. We saw this firsthand with one business we’ve worked with. Their existing plan saw them paying $88,525 for the 14mg multiple sclerosis medication Aubagio and $102,122 for all their employees’ drugs.
Under our plan, we would be able to:
- Find an alternative source for Aubagio to bring the cost down to $16,179, which would save them $72,346, or about 82% of the original cost
- Bring the total drug costs of $102,122 down to $19,437, saving the company $82,686 in just one year
- Eliminate the employees’ copay, saving them a total of $2,516 on their medication
The numbers don’t lie – sourcing drugs is an easy fix that can save you and your employees a significant amount of money.
A swift path to growth
Most changes in your benefits plan will require time for your business to see the full effect – usually between three months and a year. Though the savings are worth it, business owners are understandably eager to see faster results. The challenge, of course, is figuring out how to achieve fast, significant savings that will contribute to long-term business growth.
Alternative drug sourcing can be the answer your company is looking for. Finding low-cost alternative sources for your employees’ medication is a solution that can be implemented almost immediately, offering huge savings for both your company and workers. Best of all, there are virtually no negative effects – people don’t care where there medication comes from as long as it’s the same drug they need, and they’ll appreciate it even more if their drug costs are reduced by hundreds or thousands of dollars a year.
A small change with a big impact
As you prepare to make big changes in your benefits plan, kick things off with savings that stem from cost-effective medication choices. When you let your advisor find a low-cost source the drugs your employees need, you immediately open the door to massive savings that can help your business grow and thrive for months to come without any negative effects on your employees.
Jim Blachek flipped his traditional brokerage model in 2017 to focus solely on consulting and building value-based health plans. In 2019 he co-founded a consulting only firm Dynamic Benefit Solutions and founded Local Script a transparent pharmacy and marketing organization focused on reducing employer and employee costs while supporting the local community.
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