Anthem CEO Gail Boudreaux said the health insurer's pharmacy benefit manager will launch Jan. 1, 2020, as previously announced, and bring billions in savings, according to Forbes contributor Bruce Japsen.
In October 2017, Anthem unveiled plans to establish an in-house PBM called IngenioRx. Anthem signed a five-year agreement with CVS Health to manage prescription fulfillment and claims processing for IngenioRx beginning Jan. 1, 2020. The announcement came after Anthem said in April 2017 it would drop its contract with Express Scripts. The decision came during an ongoing legal battle between the two parties.
Anthem has said managing its own PBM will give the health insurer more power to determine which drugs are on its formulary, or its preferred list of prescriptions. During an Oct. 31 third quarter earnings call with analysts, Ms. Boudreaux said IngenioRx will lead to $4 billion in gross pharmacy savings, with most of the savings flowing to members and at least 20 percent heading to shareholders.
"To date, we've built and tested thousands of our benefit plans and set up our required technology environments," Ms. Boudreaux said. "The build-out of our customer service center is ongoing and will be up and running by mid-2019."
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