In November, National CooperativeRx welcomed our third clinical intern Abby Weaver, for a six-week period. Abby is a fourth-year pharmacy student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), currently with us for one of her numerous rotations required to make her vision of becoming a licensed pharmacist a reality. Originally from St. Charles, Illinois, Abby received her undergraduate

“Coronavirus,” “COVID-19,” “pandemic.” These are the words that dominated the world in 2020, with Merriam-Webster even proclaiming “pandemic” its Word of the Year. With most of us wishing these words would disappear from daily conversation, it seems we may be inching closer to that reality, given the recent news about potential vaccines for COVID-19. Still,

With new drugs launching every month, the pharmaceutical pipeline is robust and the marketplace is constantly evolving. A large portion of these drugs are expensive therapies that will typically be considered specialty medications once approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Specialty medications will trigger automatic utilization management (UM) programs for our member groups

diabetes   noun di·​a·​be·​tes Definition of diabetes : a chronic (long-lasting) health condition that affects how your body turns food into energy.1 November is American Diabetes Month and now more than ever it is important to know how to effectively manage diabetes. Keep reading to learn more about the condition that affects one in 10 Americans and how

We couldn’t close out October without recognizing American Pharmacists Month, as well as our incredible on-staff pharmacists who strive daily to improve our members’ bottom line and our participants’ continued good health and well-being. Whether you work with them regularly or are hearing their names for the first time, keep scrolling to learn more about

Each year, National CooperativeRx conducts a survey to measure the satisfaction of our membership and partners with certain aspects of our organization and current pharmacy benefit manager, as well as the Cooperative as a whole. This year was especially important as we are in the midst of our request for proposal process, which gives us

Using Purchasing Power to Benefit our Members The pharmaceutical industry is in a state of constant change. The upside to this change is the cutting-edge medications for patients; the downside is an uptick of tactics resulting in wasteful spending that hurts both patients and plan sponsors. To keep up, National CooperativeRx has expanded its watchdog

National CooperativeRx constantly monitors the pharmaceutical pipeline. As treatment options change, it’s important to know how those changes could impact your plan and which drugs bring the highest value. Our quarterly NCRx Pipeline Reports highlight some of the newest therapies coming to market and are not intended to imply formulary placement or coverage by CVS Caremark. SPN-812

The week is finally here! Our specialty high-dollar claim review program launches this Thursday, October 1. This program will focus on reviewing indication-specific dosing of specialty medications and optimizing dose regimens for efficiency. Our Cooperative pharmacists will assess all specialty claims above $10,000 to identify and resolve issues at no additional cost to members who

We are happy to announce the annual market check process for improvement of our CVS Caremark Master Contract is complete. Across the board, membership will save $11.2 million and it will result in an additional 4.3% overall savings for our members. Annual Market Check Process As a result of our 2019 contract negotiations, we incorporated