The delivery of maintenance medications from CarelonRx Pharmacy directly to your plan members’ homes can help them make the most of their pharmacy benefits. That’s good for them and for you.
What is a maintenance medication?
Maintenance (or long-term) medications are those drugs plan members may take on a regular basis to treat conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes.
What are the benefits of home delivery for plan members?
Convenience. Medications are delivered directly to plan members’ homes — or any location they choose. Plan members can manage their prescriptions online. First-time home delivery orders only take about two weeks and refills just 3 to 5 days. Plan members can set up reminders and automatic refills, too.
Safety. All orders are checked by a licensed pharmacist before they ship. Discreet packaging is tamperproof, weatherproof, and temperature controlled when needed.
Peace of mind. Plan members are less likely to miss a dose and more likely to stay on track with the treatment their doctor prescribed when they switch to home delivery.1 Trained pharmacists can also answer plan member questions and help them 24/7.
Hassle-free service. CarelonRx Pharmacy will contact a plan member’s doctor to order a new, 90-day prescription if they need one. If a medication preapproval is needed, the home delivery team will reach out to the plan member for consent before shipping the medication.
Cost savings. When, based on your plan rules, a health care provider prescribes a 90-day supply of a maintenance medication, rather than three 30-day supplies, plan members may save more. Shipping is always free.
What are the benefits of home delivery for plan sponsors?
Decreased member abrasion. When plan members take full advantage of their pharmacy benefits, they may save time and money. That helps reduce plan member abrasion, which means more time for you to focus on running your business.
Healthier workforce. Non-adherence causes between 30 and 50% of chronic disease treatment failures and 125,000 deaths annually. Unfortunately, medication is not taken as prescribed 50% of the time. In fact, the majority of people prescribed medications for chronic diseases take less medication than prescribed or stop the medication altogether, after six months.
For example, only 51% of patients taking medications for high blood pressure continue taking their medication during their long-term treatment. But home delivery of maintenance medications helps overcome obstacles that can lead to non-adherence, like mobility issues, transportation difficulties, restrictive pharmacy hours, and general scheduling challenges.2
Employee retention. Prescription drug home delivery is yet another component of your plan’s pharmacy benefit that will help plan members appreciate their total benefits package.
A survey for America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) shows that 56% of adults with employer-sponsored health benefits said that whether or not they like their health coverage is a key factor in deciding to stay at their current job. And 46% said health insurance was either the deciding factor or a positive influence in choosing their current job.3
You care so much about your employees and strive to provide them with benefits that can help them live their best lives — and bring their best selves to the workplace. Encouraging them to take advantage of prescription drug home delivery is just another way to do that — serving their full-range of needs with an integrated, whole-health approach to pharmacy benefits.
1 National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology website: A Retrospective Database Study Comparing Diabetes-Related Medication Adherence and Health Outcomes for Mail-Order Versus Community Pharmacy: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30816817 (accessed September 2022)
2 U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Why You Need to Take Your Medications as Prescribed or Instructed: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/special-features/why-you-need-take-your-medications-prescribed-or-instructed#:~:text=20%20to%2030%20percent%20of,or%20stop%20the%20medication%20altogether (accessed April 2023)
3 SHRM: Employees Are More Likely to Stay If They Like Their Health Plan: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/health-benefits-foster-retention.aspx (accessed April 2023)
