The most comprehensive research of its kind provides the most in-depth picture of the PBM landscape today

The 2024 Pharmacy Benefit Manager Customer Satisfaction Report published by Pharmaceutical Strategies Group (“PSG”) disclosed low satisfaction and demand for change in the industry amongst healthcare payers. The report is the most comprehensive research on pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs), with a comprehensive look into the increasingly complex structures and functions of today’s marketplace.

The report, published for more than two decades, offers decision makers powerful comparative intelligence to help in the selection and management of services provided by PBMs. PSG’s deep understanding of the marketplace enables a broader view of the arrangements PBMs use to meet the unique priorities of plan sponsors.

“PBMs are experiencing increased pressure that is ultimately going to drive change in the coming years,” said Morgan Lee, PhD, MPH, CPH, Senior Director of Research & Strategy at PSG. “This year’s report pulls back the curtain on healthcare payers’ appetite for disruption and the barriers and hesitancy posing roadblocks. Overwhelmingly, there is dissatisfaction with the status quo, but what degree of transformation the industry will undergo in the coming years remains to be seen.”

Key findings of the 2024 report include:

• Amid ongoing and intensifying challenges to provide high-quality, affordable pharmacy benefits, healthcare payers’ dissatisfaction has reached a new peak, driving appetite for better models to meet their diverse needs.
• Since peaking in 2021, likelihood to recommend PBMs and Net Promoter Score (NPS) have continuously declined. Overall, NPS for PBMs is barely in the positive range, declining from 38 in 2021 to 6 in 2024. This pattern of declining dissatisfaction was observed across many notable areas of the survey.
• Employers remain more satisfied with PBMs than health plans on nearly all measures of satisfaction.
• Customers of the Big 3 PBMs report lower satisfaction across most measures, including overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend their PBM.

“We are seeing a shift in the industry as demand drives new models to help payers address challenges in areas like high-cost therapies, GLP-1s, transparency, and cost containment,” said Michael Lonergan, RPh, President of PSG. “PSG has observed these developing trends and worked to build innovative solutions to best meet the demand of healthcare payers while staying in the bounds of the organization’s unique budgets, priorities, and needs.”

The full Pharmacy Benefit Manager Customer Satisfaction Report can be downloaded here. Organizations interested in diving deeper into insights on individual PBMs can access a supplemental fee-based report here.

About Pharmaceutical Strategies Group (PSG)

Pharmaceutical Strategies Group, an EPIC company, relentlessly advocates for clients as they navigate complex and ever-changing drug cost management challenges. PSG is an independent consultant, empowering healthcare payers to manage their pharmacy program better. As a strategic partner, PSG helps clients by providing industry-leading intelligence and technologies to realize billions of dollars in drug cost savings for clients every year. www.psgconsults.com.

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