Getting Personal with the VA

The VA pharmacy benefit offers a model for price negotiation under Medicare, but it is probably one that industry does not have to worry about too much. It sure helps when a former VA Secretary is on your side to make the case that the VA is not for everyone.

Michael Valentino is justifiably proud of the VA formulary system. As chief consultant to the Department of Veterans Affairs for the Pharmacy Benefits Management Strategic Healthcare Group since 2004, he has overseen planning and design of the drug benefit for the system.

And the numbers speak for themselves. Per capita drug spending in the system has increased by just 31% in the past eight years, he told an American Enterprise Institute conference...

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