New Findings from Case Western Reserve University Update Understanding of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy (The Time Is Now: Addressing Health Inequities In the Workforce): Drugs and Therapies – Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy

2025 APR 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Drugs and Therapies - Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy. According to news reporting originating from Cleveland, Ohio, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “As a major provider of health insurance for working-age Americans, employers can play a significant role in improving the health equity of their employees and family members. In this commentary, we describe how different stakeholders, including employers, their employees, clinicians, and health systems and health plans, each contribute to the observed inequities.”

Funders for this research include National Alliance of Health-care Purchaser Coalitions, American Heart Association, National Pharmaceutical Council - National Pharmaceutical Council.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Case Western Reserve University, “Other systems-level factors, including racism, implicit bias, medical mistrust, health literacy limitations, and health care access and affordability concerns have been also shown to contribute to inequitable outcomes. Opportunities exist for employers to improve health equity among their benefits-enrolled employees and family members using data-driven approaches to ensure that benefits are more equitable in scope, access, and affordability. As an illustrative example of employer strategic considerations, we describe opportunities to identify and address inequities in prescription medication use. Additionally, employers can, and perhaps should, advocate for transparency in community-based health system and health plan reporting regarding health inequities and progress toward more equitable health care utilization and outcomes. Employers can also advocate for the delivery of more patient-centered, systems-based solutions, such as enhanced primary care and/or worksite clinics, and give consideration to establishing health equity performance-based incentives in their health care contracting.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Further research in the employer setting can help to expand the adoption of a best-practices approach to achieving more equitable health outcomes.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: The Time Is Now: Addressing Health Inequities In the Workforce. Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, 2025;31(4):421-427. Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy can be contacted at: Acad Managed Care Pharmacy, 100 N Pitt St, 400, Alexandria, VA 22314-3134, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Bruce W. Sherman, Case Western Reserve University, Dept. of Medicine, School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States. Additional authors for this research include Brian Sils and Kimberly Westrich.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)