In a move that could send shockwaves throughout the pharmacy benefit manager industry, Tyson Foods has replaced CVS Health's Caremark with the startup PBM Rightway.

The change, which was effective on January 1, makes Tyson one of the first Fortune 100 companies to stop using the traditional large PBMs as it looks to cut spending on high-cost drugs. Rightway guarantees it can save employers 15% on pharmacy costs by using a transparent model in which it passes drug discounts to employers and plan members, while also providing concierge care to help employees find lower-cost alternatives such as generics and biosimilars.

"We were going anywhere between 12% to 14% increases for pharmacy –and on a $200 million spend, that's quite a bit," said Renu Chhabra, Tyson's vice president and head of global benefits. "We found that the specialty (drug) components of our trends … were picking up a lot of the increase year over year."