What Is A Uniform PDL & Why Does It Matter?

Payers use a variety of methods to control prescription drug costs including different financing arrangements, prior authorization, preferred drug lists, and co-payments – each of which target a different part of the financing and delivery system. Last week, I wrote about Medicaid pharmacy benefit financing arrangements including the trend towards primary carve-outs (see The Changing Medicaid Pharmacy Carve-Out Landscape). This week our team examined the uniform preferred drug list (PDL), another aspect of pharmacy benefit management in our latest market intelligence report: State Medicaid Adoption Of Uniform Preferred Drug Lists.

What exactly is a PDL and what is . . .