News from the Workers' Comp Pharmacy World

Thursday, May 1, 2008 | 0

By Joe Paduda

Here, in no particular order, are some findings gleaned from my wanderings around the show floor at Risk Insurance Management Society conference in San Diego.

MSC has rebounded nicely from the loss of Liberty Mutual's pharmacy business last year (awarded entirely to Progressive Medical). Sources indicate MSC's run rate is back above where it was when Liberty terminated the business, primarily from a few wins and no appreciable losses in the interim. Kudos to Cheif Executive officer Joe Delaney, Chief Operating Officer Mitch Freeman et all. -- while the ship may not be altogether righted, they have done a remarkable job in turning the company around.

Progressive Medical is also doing well, adding some incremental business while maintaining its reputation for stellar customer service.

Cypress Care (an HSA consulting client) is on a strong growth track, closing major deals with the California Insurance Guarantee Association and Pennsylvania's state fund (SWIF). Sources indicate Cypress is close to a couple other significant deals.

Express Scripts has released its annual workers comp drug trends report. As soon as they have a link up I'll get it out. Maybe that's why all the red-shirted ESI staff were plastered with smiles.

Larry Marsh of Lehman Brothers issued a scathing report on AmerisourceBergen, taking company management to the woodshed for their inability to sell off sub PMSI/Tmesys. Marsh hammered ABC, lowering his eps forecast by $0.05 on the basis of the no-sale of PMSI alone. The PMSI folks are doing their best to ignore the goings-on at Corporate HQ; as noted earlier today their MSA division is pressing ahead and delivering solid results despite downward pressure on pricing in that fast-maturing sector.

Finally, one of the last remaining third party billers, Third Party Solutions, is reportedly on the block - again. Loyal readers (and industry geeks) will recall TPS was for sale about a year ago, with no takers. Now that TPS has bought WorkingRx, it looks like owner Fiserv is thinking someone will pony up big bucks to own a monopoly in that space.

<i>Joe Paduda is principal of Health Care Strategy Associates, an employer consulting group. This column is reprinted from his daily blog, http://www.managedcarematters.com, with his permission.<i>