2019 innovation award earned for state employee workers’ compensation PBM partnership

LITTLE ROCK – The State Risk Manager Association recently named the Arkansas Insurance Department’s Public Employee Claims Division (PECD) as the recipient of the 2019 AFIRM Award for its state employee workers’ compensation pharmacy benefit management program in partnership with the UAMS College of Pharmacy and Optum.

“I am very proud of the work of PECD Director Nathan Culp and his division in partnering up with the College of Pharmacy and Optum to reduce prescription costs for state employees and be good stewards of hardworking taxpayer’s dollars while ensuring state employees’ workers’ compensation prescription needs are met,” Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr said.

Since September 2015, the Arkansas Insurance Department has worked together with Optum and the UAMS College of Pharmacy Evidence-Based Medicine Program (EBRX) to address the approval or denial of non-formulary prescription medications for workers’ compensation claims involving state employees. Prior to that, PECD analysts and claims specialists with the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission (WCC) handled non-formulary prescription determinations.

At the end of Fiscal year 2016, state employee pharmacy costs for workers’ compensation claims totaled $1,172,357. For the recently-ended Fiscal Year 2019, costs dropped to $684,355.

The program also maintains a 99% efficiency for generic prescriptions.

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