Coventry has released Part 1 of their “2017 Drug Trends Series”, giving an overview of pharmacy activity for the year based on transactions billed through their PBM Program First Script, and transactions from medical bill review.

They reported another drop in opioid use and lower prescription drug utilization and costs than last year’s report. They include a traditional view of pharmacy transactions which are prescriptions obtained via retail or mail-order. Those make up 69.6 percent of total pharmacy transactions and 71.2 percent of the pair amount. The rest come from their nontraditional view, which includes physician dispensing, repackaging, third-party billers, compounding and specialty pharmacies.

Overall they saw a decrease of 6.8 percent in cost per claim and a 6.7 percent decrease in utilization. Opioid utilization decreased 10.7 percent and a 14.4 percent decrease in cost per claim. Overall, cost per claim between all classes decreased 6.8 percent between 2016 and 2017. Seven of the top ten classes experienced a decrease in cost per claim. Compound medication experienced a 60 percent decrease in cost per claim.

Average wholesale price increased 4.4 percent overall. In name brands, OxyContin remained the most expensive and most utilized opioid brand name medication and increased its average wholesale price by 8 percent. Lyrica, increasing in AWP by 15.2 percent, is Coventry’s most expensive and utilized brand medication.

It is good to see opioid utilization decrease and costs dropping overall.

Read the full report here.