PBMI's Annual Drug Benefit Conference

Today, I welcome PBMI’s 18th Annual Drug Benefit Conference as a Drug Channels Sponsor. This year's conference will be held at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 18-20, 2013.

Many attendees will be from employers, health plans, and unions, so it's a great opportunity to learn about payers' perspectives on pharmacy benefits. PBMI has added a lot of specialty drug content to this year's meeting.

Educational sessions will be led such companies as Aetna, Citi Investment Research, Envision Rx Options, Express Scripts, HealthPartners, Humana, inVentiv Medical Management, Pharmaceutical Strategies Group, PMSI, Premera Blue Cross, Prime Therapeutics, RegenceRx, Source Healthcare Analytics, UnitedHealthcare, Walgreen and more.

Check out the official description below. BTW, the early bird discount ends on January 24!

OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION FROM PBMI

In less than 7 weeks, PBMI’s 18th Annual Drug Benefit Conference will kick-off in Las Vegas, Nevada. This conference draws benefits and managed care professionals from across the country to learn about best practices for tackling pharmacy benefit challenges through presentations from thought leaders and industry experts. The conference opens with a keynote presentation on inappropriate use of behavioral health drugs from award-winning author Robert Whitaker. Robert won the Investigative Reporters and Editors book award for best investigative journalism in 2010.

The agenda has been designed to offer a wide variety of topics for managing the specialty and traditional pharmacy benefit including fraud, waste, and abuse. More than half a dozen sessions address medical specialty management including the critical topics of oncology and site of care management. Plan sponsors such as Whirlpool, Walmart, and Vanderbilt, to name a few, will share case studies of their experiences in pharmacy benefit management.

Prime Therapeutics will release their new specialty drug forecast. Due to the great reception towards a three-day specialty track option on last year’s agenda, there will be two tracks dedicated to specialty this year and one traditional pharmacy benefit track. A Specialty 101 Pre-Conference Workshop to help attendees master the fundamentals of specialty drug management has been added to the agenda.

PBMI will share outcomes from its Specialty Drug Benefit Report, sponsored by Walgreens and also highlight results of the 2012-2013 Prescription Drug Benefit Cost and Plan Design Report sponsored by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, U.S.A., Inc. (Reports are complimentary and will be available for attendees.) The winner of the 2013 Rx Benefit Innovation Award will be announced during the award ceremony on Tuesday, February 19th.

For more information about the conference visit www.pbmi.com. Look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel.