PBMI Webcast Will Help Employers Actively Manage Specialty Drug Coverage.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The steps employers should be taking to better manage specialty drug coverage will be discussed in a Webcast hosted by the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute (PBMI) from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on October 11, 2006. Webcast registration is available at www.pbmi.com.

The 90-minute Webcast will help employers analyze how they currently cover specialty drugs and identify the critical issues involved in developing a proactive specialty pharmacy strategy.

"We want to arm plan sponsors with an understanding of specialty drug programs and questions they need to ask their pharmacy benefit managers and health plans," says Dana H. Felthouse, PBMI president. "Our speakers will outline action steps to get a handle on specialty pharmacy cost and utilization."

Webcast speakers will be Lisa Gish, RN, MHA, executive director of the Tri-State Business Group on Health, and Estay Greene, PharmD, director of pharmacy benefits for the Cleveland Health Network/Cleveland Clinic.

Gish will discuss active management of the specialty pharmacy benefit from the employer/plan sponsor perspective. Greene will focus on setting priorities and establishing clinical strategies. Asthma, growth hormones and psoriasis will serve as examples to illustrate how clinical management guidelines can be employed to ensure beneficiaries have access to needed specialty therapies while managing the plan sponsor's financial risk.

The Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute provides research, continuing education, publications and Web resources that help health care benefit executives work effectively with their PBMs to improve the design and management of drug benefit programs. Learn more at www.pbmi.com.