Report: Cost Per Claim Played Bigger Role, Rebates Had Smaller Impact in ‘23

Some findings from the new report by Pharmaceutical Strategies Group (PSG), an EPIC company, may have seemed like old news: AbbVie Inc.’s Humira (adalimumab) was the top specialty drug in terms of spend. Inflammatory treatments dominated the top 10 of those agents. But the 2024 Artemetrx State of Specialty Spend and Trend Report, released July 25, also revealed some new findings, including that rebates had a smaller impact in 2023 than they did the previous year and that cost per claim played a bigger role in the 2023 specialty drug trend than it did in the prior time frame.

PSG based the report — which is sponsored by Walmart Specialty Pharmacy — on integrated pharmacy and medical claims data from the book of business for its proprietary SaaS platform Artemetrx. In its eighth year, the newest report is based on 138 million medical claims and 136 million pharmacy claims. The findings are based mainly on commercial health plans.