2020 Drug Trend Report

Tightly managed clients saw 0.6% trend

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April 30, 2021
Executive Vice President, CVS Health and President, CVS Caremark

CVS Health has released the 2020 Drug Trend Report. Our job at CVS Caremark is to be the best manager of our clients’ pharmacy spend, which includes better engaging patients and their providers throughout the duration of therapy, creating more actionable insights to maximize specialty savings while improving patient care and experience.

2020 Drug Trend Report highlights

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0.6% pharmacy trend for tightly managed clients; their costs were $10 lower PMPM than the overall cohort

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2.9% overall drug trend

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Negative trend for 34% of commercial clients

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18% of clients had negative specialty trend

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Utilization increased by 1.7%

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Price growth was measured at 1.2%

Read the full 2020 Drug Trend Report >

Specialty

Specialty treatments continue to be the fastest-growing area of pharmacy spend, with utilization as the main driver. 

98% of utilization increase
was from conditions with new therapies/indications
90% of spend
was driven by five therapeutic categories: autoimmune, oncology, cystic fibrosis, atopic dermatitis, and HIV
98% of utilization increase was from conditions with new therapies/indications
90% of spend was driven by five therapeutic categories: autoimmune, oncology, cystic fibrosis, atopic dermatitis, and HIV

Ensuring appropriate specialty utilization, avoiding waste and maximizing cost reduction programs helped us keep specialty trend in check for clients who used our services.

More than 40%
of clients had single-digit specialty trend
18%
of clients had negative specialty trend
More than 40%
of clients had single-digit specialty trend
18%
of clients had negative specialty trend

Read the CVS Health 2020 Drug Trend Report >
 

Interested in lowering your plan’s drug trend? Ask Us
FEATURE
April 30, 2021
Executive Vice President, CVS Health and President, CVS Caremark

Methodology: This report provides an overview of performance for CVS Health commercial PBM clients — employers and health plans. Data was calculated on a cohort of nearly 1,100 clients, covering 23 million lives. The cohort is built only on clients under our management throughout all of 2019 and 2020, excluding commercial clients with eligibility shifts exceeding 20 percent as well as any clients contractually prohibited from inclusion. Prescription drug trend is the measureof growth in prescription spending per member per month. Unless otherwise noted, reported data is net of negotiated pricing, rebates, and manufacturer discounts.   

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