INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH & OPINION

Regulatory and Healthcare News More money for DM programmes despite doubts US managed-care organisations (MCOs) are planning to increase spending on disease management (DM) programmes despite remaining doubts regarding the programmes and their vendors, reveal the results of 3 recent surveys. The first survey, conducted by the National Managed Health Care Congress and the market research ftrm Migliara/Kaplan Associates, found that 94% of MCOs believe that DM will receive greater funding over the next 3 years. In addition, it was shown that DM vendors, MCOs and employers all expect that the development of DM programmes will become more reliant on external vendors such as drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs ).

60% of MCOs to develop own DM plans However, in a second survey, organised by US pharmaceutical consulting firm Scott-Levin Associates, 61% of MCO directors surveyed reported plans to develop their own DM programmes internally. Michael Gray of Scott-Levin Associates reasoned that MCOs distrust drug company DM programmes, and that the current inability to measure the results of such programmes further prevents their acceptance by MCOs. A third survey, conducted by the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute in the US, found that> 44% of health maintenance organisations that use PBMprovided DM services are dissatisfied with those services. Spending on disease management programs expected to soar despite lingering 800493413 reservations. Formulary 31: 1148 & 1151, Dec 1996

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 25 Jan 1997 No. 96

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