2006 drug trend report.(HEALTH CARE COSTS)

Medco, May 19, 2006

"Through careful management of utilization and cost, [our] clients have reduced drug trend to its lowest level in many years. [Drug trend is defined as the annual rate of change in spending on prescription drugs from year-to-year.] The average cost of prescription drug benefits rose only 5.4% in 2005. Careful management of prescription benefit plans has helped rein in drug costs for the nation as a whole. The number of clients achieving single-digit trend has been increasing rapidly. In 2005, 79% of [our] top integrated accounts achieved trend below 10%, compared with 54% who achieved single-digit trend in 2004. In 2005, half of [our] integrated accounts achieved trend below 4.9%.

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