MYB Program Helps Consumers Rein in Drug Costs

National health care spending keeps climbing, but your patients with Humana health coverage are learning new tactics to lower their out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs.

Humana’s Maximize Your Benefit (MYB) program, which has helped consumers save big on pharmacy costs since its inception in early 2001, encourages Humana members taking certain popular, high-priced prescription drugs to talk to their physicians about lower-cost alternatives.

MYB focuses on drugs in Level Three of the Humana Drug List — usually brand-name drugs that require higher copayments but often have lower-costing and clinically appropriate alternatives in Level One or Level Two.

“The purpose of the program is to help Humana members manage their out-of-pocket prescription drug costs,” said Tracy Timberlake, operations manager, pharmacy management for Humana. “One way they can do this is to talk to their physicians about possible lower-cost alternatives for the drug originally prescribed.”

Consumer information from the MYB program also can help Medicare Advantage members manage their maximum allowable benefit.

Although Humana gives its members information about prescription drugs, the placement of a pharmaceutical on the Humana Drug List does not indicate its appropriateness or clinical effectiveness for any member or any specific illness.

By keeping the focus on consumer education, the MYB program helps counter the influence of direct-to-consumer drug advertising campaigns that suggest patients ask their physicians about expensive brand-name drugs.

Humana’s MYB program contacts members by telephone, mail or secured e-mail after they fill prescriptions for certain drugs on Level Three of the Humana Drug List. The program provides consumers with the names of alternate prescription drugs that could treat the condition or illness and encourages consumers to talk to the prescribing physician about their prescribed drugs.

To review Humana’s Drug List, go to www.humana.com, and select
“Prescription Drug.”

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