Employers Tap Risk Managers, Group Purchasing to Curtail Rx Costs

Jul 24
Jul 24, 2025

As employers struggle to get a handle on rising pharmacy benefit costs, various approaches, from working with pharmacy risk managers to joining a group purchasing arrangement, are available. Many of these offerings were in the spotlight at the Employer Forum on Pharmacy Benefits, Specialty Drugs & Biopharma Therapies, held June 25 in Chicago.

During a fireside chat discussing successful employer strategies in pharmacy benefits, Jason Duhon, director of total rewards at Caterpillar, Inc., explained that his company began really paying attention to benefit costs around 2006 to 2008 when it saw the prescription drug trend rising. Specialty drugs and their potential to represent half of the total drug spend were just starting to be part of the discussion, and the company began partnering with a local pharmacist on how to streamline the supply chain and possible opportunities to slow that trend.
Read more
© 2025 MMIT

Angela Maas

Angela has an extensive background of editing, reporting and writing for trade and consumer publications. She has written Radar on Specialty Pharmacy since she joined AIS Health in 2005 and has broad knowledge of the various issues at play within the space. She also has written for Spotlight on Market Access since its 2017 launch. Before joining AIS Health, she was managing editor at Employee Benefit News and Employee Benefit News Canada and managing editor at Hem Aware (a hemophilia publication), Lupus Living and Momentum (a multiple sclerosis publication). She has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in British literature from Arizona State University.