Specialty Pharmacy Use For Cancer Treatment Associated With 12% Fewer Hospitalizations & 8% Lower Medical Costs

Medicare Advantage members with cancer who primarily used an affiliated specialty pharmacy had 11.7% fewer hospitalizations, 2.7% fewer emergency department visits, and 7.7% lower medical costs than members who used other pharmacies.

Medical costs averaged $4,001 per user member per month (PUMPM) for affiliated-pharmacy users, compared with $4,398 for members using other pharmacies. Hospitalizations averaged 0.56 PUMPM among affiliated-pharmacy users, compared with 0.64 for other pharmacy users. Emergency department visits averaged 1.41 PUMPM and 1.50 PUMPM, respectively.

The study included 17,667 Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan enrollees who . . .