UnitedHealth Group’s pharmacy benefit manager is launching an alternative, value-based drug pricing model it promises will make pharmaceutical spending more predictable.
The OptumRx Clear Trend Guarantee offering combines price guarantees into a single per member cost and links spending to outcomes, UnitedHealth Group announced Monday. The new PBM option will be available next year.
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“It is more important now than ever before to be an innovator in healthcare and to drive affordability and value for plan sponsors and members,” OptumRx CEO Dr. Patrick Conway said in a news release. “We are not stopping with Clear Trend Guarantee, and will continue to deliver clear information, transparent and lowest net cost, choice and a simplified pharmacy benefit for everyone.”
OptumRx is the latest major PBM to launch an alternative pricing model as Congress and regulators target the industry's historically opaque business practices, and as new rivals seek to claim market share from the three leading companies.
The top two PBMs, CVS Health's CVS Caremark and Cigna's Express Scripts, announced similar alternative models last year, which borrow from the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. playbook by promising greater transparency and lower costs. OptumRx introduced two other PBM models, Cost Clarity and Cost Advantage, in April 2023.
