The View from Managed Care Pharmacy

This stratified, national telephone survey of fifty-one managed care organizations concerns the perspectives of managed care pharmacy directors on pharmacoeconomics, disease management, and the roles of the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Respondents rated clinical effectiveness assessments as most useful, cost-effectiveness assessments second, and quality-of-life assessments as least useful. Peer-reviewed and industry literature were rated as equally important for decision making. Most plans would consider establishing a partnership with a drug company for disease management, if they have not already done so. Most plans (76 percent) support some form of FDA regulation of pharmacoeconomic claims. Conversely, 69 percent favor either no regulation (24 percent) or less stringent regulation (45 percent) than exists today.