CompPharma published their 15^th Annual Prescription Drug Management in Workers’ Compensation Survey Report last week. The survey found that pharmacy costs in comp have decreased significantly over the past eight years and is no longer the fastest growing segment of medical expenses.

Over the past eight years prescription costs have decreased by $1.1 billion, mainly because of a major decline in opioid use and cost. There were 29 payers who were surveyed in the study, and all but four of them spent less on drugs in 2017 than they had in 2016. Not only did payers attribute the decline to fewer opioids, but also to a decreased reliance on compound medications, changes and improvements to clinical management programs and lower claim volumes. Payers are still concerned about compounds though, as well as prescribers and dispensers “gaming the system”, drug price inflation and state formularies.

The full study is available here.