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Urick's team at FutureScripts manages prescription drug benefits for over1.3 million members with an annual drug spend of more than $1 billion.FutureScripts offers a full array of pharmacy management services, includingformulary development and management, pharmaceutical contracting, claimsprocessing, and a national network of more than 60,000 retail and specialtypharmacies.
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Before this promotion Urick served as vice president of Pharmacy Services.Previously Urick was vice president for pharmacy programs at Geisinger HealthPlan in Danville, Pennsylvania, where he oversaw the plan's pharmacy benefitmanagement services, including a pharmacy mail order facility. Urick began hiscareer at Geisinger Medical center as a clinical pharmacist.
Urick received his pharmacy degree from the University of Sciences inPhiladelphia. He is a member of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP)and is a past chapter president of the Pennsylvania Society of Health SystemPharmacists.
FutureScripts first began operations on October 1, 2006, handling theadministration of prescription drug benefits for employer groups and healthplans. Currently, FutureScripts provides its services to all Independence BlueCross (IBC) companies with plans to expand in the marketplace in the future.FutureScripts' key accounts include major school systems, corporations, andlabor unions in Southeastern Pennsylvania. In its first year of businessFutureScripts processed more than 15 million pharmacy claims. Continuing togrow, FutureScripts has over 100 employees, including pharmacists and otherbusiness associates, and is currently hiring for key talent positions.
When developing FutureScripts, the goal was to build a cost-savingprescription solution to help customers manage rising prescription drug costswithout sacrificing quality. FutureScripts' approach to managing prescriptiondrug benefits is expected to provide close to $100 million in savings to IBC'sgroup customers over a five-year period.
"More than 22 cents of each health care dollar spent in our region goestoward the cost of prescription drugs," said Butler, president ofFutureScripts. "We share our customers' increasing concern about the risingcost of staying healthy, and we are pleased at how effectively FutureScriptsis helping to drive down costs for our customers."
Butler explained that FutureScripts reduced increases in pharmacy costsfor IBC customers by 2.3 percent in 2007 - despite the increase in medicationstaken by members as they age and the introduction of new, more costly drugswith national advertising campaigns aimed directly at consumers.
In a major effort to raise awareness about and use of generic drugs,FutureScripts managed one of the industry's most innovative pharmaceuticalprograms, IBC's No Pay Copay. This initiative waived copays for genericprescription drugs for IBC pharmacy members during 2007. No Pay Copay provedhighly successful, with 87 percent of members surveyed reporting that theywill continue to ask their doctors for generic prescriptions after No PayCopay ended, and three-quarters believe generics are as safe and as effectiveas their brand-name counterparts.
FutureScripts(R) is a pharmacy benefits management company headquarteredin Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that helps employers and health plans managerising prescription drug costs without sacrificing quality coverage.FutureScripts has built a comprehensive national pharmacy network of more than60,000 retai
