ST. LOUIS, May 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- To make it
simpler for consumers and payers to navigate the hundreds of
thousands of currently available personal health technologies and
interventions, Express Scripts, a Cigna company, will introduce the
industry's first, stand-alone digital health formulary.
"We are in an exciting age when technology is giving people even
greater control of their own health and well-being. However, much
of this technology is still emerging, and there are many digital
health solutions that require clinical review and validation," said
Mark Bini, Vice President,
Innovation and Member Experience, Express Scripts. "We see a need
to put mechanisms in place to help carefully manage these
innovations, and are proud to lead again by being the first health
services organization to establish a formulary of this nature. This
formulary will help ensure developers do right by payers and
consumers, while increasing patient access to technology that can
help improve their health."
The new formulary will help payers ensure the safety,
effectiveness and usability of digital health technology tools made
available to their members. Available in 2020, the digital health
formulary will be a curated list of technology- and
software-enabled applications and devices that help patients
prevent, manage or treat a medical condition.
Similar to a medication formulary, Express Scripts will employ a
comprehensive process overseen by physicians, pharmacists and
experts in health research and user experience, who will review
clinical outcomes and therapeutic benefit data to determine
inclusion on the formulary. Each digital solution included on the
formulary first must demonstrate therapeutic value, effective
usability, and stringent security and privacy standards, followed
by cost effectiveness.
By adopting a digital health formulary, plan sponsors can
confidently deploy a digital health product to their members
knowing it has been through a uniform review process to ensure its
safety, quality, usability and affordability. The digital health
formulary also will:
- reduce the administrative burden for plan sponsors associated
with contracting and managing digital health companies,
- help improve affordability by leveraging Express Scripts' size
and scale in the purchasing of digital health products, and
- create a pathway to cover the increasing number of
prescription-only digital therapeutics that are coming to
market.
Initially, the digital health formulary will include solutions
for diabetes, cardiovascular, behavioral health and pulmonary
conditions, and will later expand to include tools for other
chronic and complex conditions.
Clients still will have the ability to choose which digital
solutions they provide or cover for their members; inclusion on the
digital health formulary will not guarantee that a plan will cover
a certain technology.
The Digital Health Landscape
Digital health technology includes software-driven tools that
help patients take better control of their health. The marketplace
is broad and growing exponentially, and includes tools that promote
fitness, wellness and the prevention of chronic conditions, mobile
health interventions, telehealth solutions, remote monitoring
devices, and FDA-approved digital therapeutics that work with
specific medications or medical devices. While the majority of apps
and tools are available to all people, some require a prescription
from a physician. The number of prescribed digital health products
is expected to grow in the coming years.
"In addition to helping payers manage currently available
digital health solutions, our digital health formulary lays the
groundwork to manage new solutions and tools that have yet to be
invented," said Bini. "We want to create a level playing field for
inventors and entrepreneurs to encourage continued innovation in
this space, and to ensure a pathway to deliver those innovations to
patients with assured safety, accuracy and affordability."
About Express Scripts
Express Scripts is a health care
opportunity company. Empowered by our legacy as an industry
innovator, we dare to imagine — and deliver — a better health care
system with greater choice, predictability, affordability and
improved outcomes. From pharmacy and medical benefits management,
to specialty pharmacy care and everything in between, we uncover
opportunities to make health care better.
We stand alongside our clients and partners, collaborating to
develop personalized solutions that make a meaningful difference in
the lives of those we serve, whenever and wherever it's needed. We
believe health care can do more.
We are Champions For BetterSM.
Express Scripts, a Cigna company, unlocks new value in
pharmacy, medical and beyond to further total health for all.
For more information, visit Lab.Express-Scripts.com or follow
@ExpressScripts on Twitter.
Contact:
Jennifer
Luddy
Express Scripts
908-794-9226
jennifer_luddy@express-scripts.com
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SOURCE Express Scripts
