Formulary Advantages in Psychiatric Drugs: Medicare plans readily employ cost-sharing measures and formulary restrictions to direct early use of generics and preferred brands for psychiatry.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, each year tens of millions of Americans are affected by mental illness. Although significant strides have been made toward understanding the pathophysiology of depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, it remains difficult for physicians to predict an individual patientÕs response to therapy. Accordingly, patients require access to a wide range of therapies on formulary to find an optimal regimen. Using tiering and restrictions data from Fingertip Formulary, as well as insight from 50 pharmacy directors, this report determines the key trends in reimbursement of therapies for psychiatric disorders, drivers of these trends, and how stakeholders can capitalize on future shifts in coverage to steal share from the competition.
