For its analysis, Express Scripts examined unidentified prescription drug use data of about 34.3 million pharmacy benefit plan members.
Here are four key notes from the report.
1. Per-person spending on prescription drugs grew 1.5 percent for plans covering employees and their families. The growth rate is less than half of the increase recorded in 2016, and is the lowest since Express Scripts began tracking drug spending data in 1993.
2. In 2017, employer-funded plan members paid 14.3 percent of their total prescription costs out of pocket. This was the same in 2016.
3. For a 30-day prescription, the average member out-of-pocket cost including deductible and copay was $11.24 in 2017. This reflects a 12-cent increase from 2016.
4. Diabetes and hypertension medication spending decreased about 4 percent in 2017 compared to the year prior. Prescriptions used to treat these common diseases represented 59 percent of total drug spending in 2017.
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