SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Magellan Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGLN) today announced that Magellan Rx Management, the pharmacy benefit management division of the company, has launched a hemophilia management program in collaboration with Health New England, a non-profit health plan serving the commercial, Medicaid and Medicare markets. Hemophilia is a rare genetic bleeding disorder, for which treatment is expensive and difficult to manage. The average annual cost for patients with severe hemophilia can exceed $250,000 per patient, and may be upward of $1 million for patients who have developed inhibitors.
The program is targeted to manage hemophilia utilization on both the pharmacy and medical benefits, and aims to improve overall quality of care while reducing unnecessary costs by:
- Helping payers analyze information related to patient bleed history and hemophilia treatment patterns.
- Standardizing dispensing and optimal dose protocols to promote best practices and improve transparency in hemophilia care.
- Updating policies to encourage individualized treatment regimens based on patient-specific metabolic factors.
“Variability in dosing of hemophilia products contributes to increasingly high costs in the hemophilia category. Standardized dosing protocols can significantly reduce potential over-utilization of hemophilia drugs without compromising clinical outcomes," said Dr. Maria Lopes, chief medical officer of Magellan Rx Management. "Transparency and care coordination are also key to ensuring that hemophilia patients receive best-in-class care; therefore, it is imperative that important clinical information used to determine optimal outcomes is shared between all stakeholders, including the prescriber, payer, patient and pharmacy."
This program will be led by clinical pharmacists, who will collaborate with hemophilia treatment providers and pharmacies throughout the drug delivery process to improve care coordination and ensure program goals are being met. Regular communication between stakeholders to share key clinical information and outcomes will be provided on a monthly basis.
"Variability of care and lack of transparency have been prevalent issues for the management of hemophilia members for a long time. By working with Magellan, we anticipate meaningful outcomes from both a quality and a financial perspective by standardizing treatment expectations for all stakeholders. Our goal is to ensure patients with hemophilia are receiving the highest quality of care, while minimizing potential waste created through excess dispensing and inappropriate dosing,” said Andrew J. Colby, R.Ph, Health New England’s pharmacy director.
About Health New England: Based in Springfield, Mass., Health New England is a non-profit health plan serving members in Massachusetts and Connecticut. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Baystate Health, Health New England offers a range of health care plans in the commercial, Medicaid and Medicare markets. For more information, visit healthnewengland.org.
About Magellan Rx Management: Magellan Rx Management is a full-service PBM that expands beyond traditional core services to help its customers and members solve complex pharmacy challenges by connecting them to the people, technology and information they need to make smarter healthcare decisions. Magellan Rx Management is leading the next evolution of PBMs by using a value-driven approach that moves past the traditional volume-focused thinking to deliver true value-driven solutions, including targeted clinical programs, powerful member and provider engagement strategies, advanced analytics and expert specialty pharmacy management capabilities.
About Magellan Health: Magellan Health, Inc. is a leader in managing the fastest growing, most complex areas of health, including special populations, complete pharmacy benefits and other specialty areas of healthcare. Magellan supports innovative ways of accessing better health through technology, while remaining focused on the critical personal relationships that are necessary to achieve a healthy, vibrant life. Magellan's customers include health plans and other managed care organizations, employers, labor unions, various military and governmental agencies and third-party administrators. For more information, visit MagellanHealth.com.
