The
2007 survey respondents are 340 U.S. employers representing 6,187,724
members. PBMI developed the sample from its proprietary database
of employers sponsoring drug benefit programs.
Respondents were asked to complete the survey, providing data about
one drug plan that their organization offers. The plan they selected
might include active employees only, retirees only, or a combination
of active employees and retirees. If the plan did not fall under
one of these categories, it was considered “other”.
-
The plans are fairly evenly divided among those that cover active
employees and those that cover active employees and retirees.
As shown in Table 1, less than 1 percent of the respondents described
a retiree-only drug plan in their survey responses.
- Table
2 displays the total number of members in each plan type. Table
3 calculates the average group size. You’ll find a breakdown
of respondents by group size in Table 4.
- A
detailed comparison of group size and number of member types per
employer shows that those who responded to the 2007 survey are
similar to those who responded in 2005-06.
This
year, there are 6.9 percent more employers reporting on drug plans
for groups with 1-2,000 members. As a result, cost and utilization
findings may be a bit higher than those for large group plans with
aggressive plan designs for managing drug mix and utilization.
The
2007 data set includes 24 employers reporting on groups with more
than 50,000 members. That’s 3.8 percent fewer employers than
reported for groups of that size in 2005-06.
- Figures
1 and 2 show the industry segments and geographic location of
the respondents, as they reported them.
- Employers
rely on more than one source to oversee plan design. As Table
5 illustrates, the most frequently used resources are Human Resources
and Benefits Staff (73.2%), HMOs (37.6%), and PBMs (22%).
- As
shown in Table 6, the majority of respondents said they spend
25 percent of their time, or less, on drug benefits. Only 5.4
percent of the respondents said they spend 76 percent to 100 percent
of their time on drug benefits.
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