National CooperativeRx New Year's Resolutions. With a successful 2010 coming to a close, we thought now would be a good time to look ahead and share with our members and stakeholders what we plan to accomplish in 2011. These goals will move us toward our oft-stated, twofold mission of increasing value to our member owners and increasing membership in the coalition.  

We resolve: 

1. To acheive a 2011 trend that is half of national benchmarks for plans that work with us to actively manage their prescription drug benefit.
2. To increase our contacts with members and stakeholders, and disseminate valuable information through in-person visits, webinars, educational programs and other communications.
3. To increase our purchasing clout by at least another ten percent by growing the coalition and exceeding current members' expectations.
4. To evaluate each client's utilization data to identify and help implement cost saving ideas like plan design changes and effective clinical solutions.
5. That in addition to distributing our fifth straight year of dividends to members in 2011, we will also operate the coalition under a judicious budget that will ensure a sixth straight year of patronage dividends in 2012.

Wisconsin Rapids Tribune. Last school year, two University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism students walked into a campus library with a mission: see how quickly they could score some Adderall, a popular prescription "smart drug" that users say improves their ability to study. (Riback, 12/26) Full story

Los Angeles Times. An unusual coalition of corporations, insurance companies and labor groups is pushing for legislation that would put restrictions on the customized medicines known as compounded drugs, saying the prescribing of these drugs has become rife with abuse. (Lifsher, 12/28) Full story

Reuters. Comparative effectiveness research could net larger drug rebates in Britain if Glaxo drug doesn't measure up. (Hirschler, 12/23) Full story

American Medical News. Four privacy advocacy groups have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, asking it to investigate the online marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies. (Lewis Dolan, 12/27) Full story 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Releases Part V of a series of Freqently Asked Questions regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  It includes valuable information about benefit plan designs and effective dates of certain PPACA provisions. FAQs

The Wall Street Journal. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey reveals that most employers had to make plan changes to comply with the mental health parity act signed into law by President Bush in 2008, some dropping mental health benefits altogether. (Adams & Johnson, 12/23) Full story

We wish all of our friends peace and happiness in the new year.  A special thank you to our members and partners for their ongoing support and commitment. We look forward to working with you to deliver higher value prescription benefits in 2011 and beyond!

Warmest wishes,

Greg Horstman, CEO

WisconsinRx/National CooperativeRx