To all Great-West Members,
As many of you know, Great-West Healthcare was purchased by CIGNA more than a year ago. BVSD’s health plan is still covered through Great-West (now a part of CIGNA) and is still primarily self-funded by the district. As part of the transition to CIGNA, CIGNA is moving Great-West members’ pharmacy benefit management to CIGNA on November 1, 2009. BVSD conducted a review of CIGNA’s pharmacy benefit and determined that it is better and less disruptive for our members if we stay with our current pharmacy benefit manager, Express Scripts, Inc. (ESI).
ESI has been BVSD’s pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) since we started with Great-West in 2007. This year, the district was able to lower the co-pay to members for generic prescriptions to $5. By staying with ESI we are able keep the same large network of pharmacies and also join a PBM coalition of other public sector organizations with more than 40,000 members. Staying with ESI and joining the coalition helps the district better manage our plan for the benefit of our members. For example, beginning November 1, we are able to lower the preferred brand name drug co-pay to $25 (from $30). We are focused on providing continuity in our benefits and are committed to a smooth transition from ESI through Great-West to ESI directly through the coalition. Beginning November 1, the co-pays for a 30 day supply will be: $5 for generic; $25 for preferred brand name; $50 for non-preferred brand name.
There will be small changes in the formulary list of preferred and non-preferred drugs. For BVSD, less than 5% of prescriptions are affected. The formulary is reviewed on a periodic basis by all PBM’s as new generic drugs are approved and other drugs are introduced. The link to ESI’s formulary is below. Members with affected prescriptions will receive a letter directly from ESI in a couple of weeks.
We were able to work with Great-West to have the new ESI information added to our Great-West ID cards. Great-West members will receive a new card at the end of October which will replace the current Great-West card beginning November 1. The new card will have the same ID number as your current card along with a new RxGRP code that the pharmacies use to verify coverage. Remember to start using this new card beginning November 1, 2009.
Please contact Bob Jamieson at 720-561-5188 or bob.jamieson@bvsd.org, Susana Aguirre at 720-561-5022 or susana.aguirre@bvsd.org or Beth Collins at 720-561-5936 or beth.collins@bvsd.org if you have any questions. Or, beginning October 26, you can contact ESI customer service at 1-877-531-4918.
-
Here is link to locate a pharmacy:
-
-
-
-
-