Public Employee Press

Trustees replace drug benefit administrator

The DC 37 Health and Security Plan has chosen a new firm to administer the union’s drug benefit. The plan’s trustees voted unanimously Jan. 19 to hire the pharmacy benefits administrator Innoviant to run the benefit, which provides 120,000 DC 37 members and 50,000 retirees with more than $150 million in prescriptions each year.

The switch from Express Scripts Inc. to Innoviant will take place this summer, said Plan Administrator Rosa Esperon. Meanwhile, members and retirees should continue to use Express Scripts to fill their prescriptions at pharmacies and by mail-order.

“We hope the transition will be as smooth as possible,” Esperon said. Mark Rosenthal, chair of the trustees and president of Local 983, reported on the change to the union’s delegates Jan. 24. He said the trustees considered bids from 25 companies for over a year in an effort to improve services and contain costs.

In recent years, the plan has struggled to blunt the impact of annual double-digit increases in prescription drug costs, which eat up a greater and greater portion of the union’s benefit funds. The other benefits include dental, vision, hearing and podiatric coverage, as well as legal and counseling services.

Last year, the plan ran a deficit of $40 million, Esperon told the delegates. Rosenthal projected savings of $7 million a year with Innoviant. Based in Wisconsin, Innoviant works with a network of 53,000 pharmacies. Currently, it has 300 clients serving 280,000 individuals.

Besides Rosenthal, the trustees are Local 2507 President and Co-chair Patrick Bahnken, DC 37 Associate Director Oliver Gray, and local presidents Juan Fernandez (154), Louis Sbar (299), Carolyn Harper (1251), James Tucciarelli (1320), Edna Williams (1597), Franklin Silsdorf (1931), Edward W. Hysyk (2627) and Shaurain Farber of the DC 37 Retirees Association.

The trustees are also considering making the mail order plan optional instead of mandatory, said Rosenthal.