United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-05-25 monographic deposited born digital 58 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-588 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-588 P0b002ee1803825f7 f:d01588 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-588 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-588 GAO-01-588 Brand name specifications Defense procurement Drugs Health care cost control Interagency relations Managed health care Pharmaceutical industry DOD TRICARE Program Other Written Product A00877 The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have made important progress, particularly this past year, in their collaborative efforts to jointly procure drugs to help control spiraling prescription drug costs. While their joint procurement efforts have been impressive, to date the Departments have largely targeted generic drugs, which comprise less than 10 percent of their combined expenditures. More dramatic cost reductions could be realized through procurements of high-cost brand-name drugs, although doing so can be more complex and time consuming to garner the necessary clinical support and provider acceptance on therapeutic interchangeability. Nonetheless, DOD's greatly expanded retiree drug benefit and both Departments' developing formularies should provide added joint procurement opportunities for such drugs. Also, the Departments have demonstrated that flexible approaches to developing joint solicitations can take into account differences in their health systems while still maximizing drug discounts. In GAO's view, their joint activities could be further enhanced by periodically conferring with private managed care pharmacy experts and reporting to Congress on their joint procurement activities. DOD and VA need to ensure that high-level attention remains focused on their joint procurement and distribution activities as the ongoing leadership changes are being made at the Departments. In the same regard, VA and DOD have also made progress in their efforts to conduct a consolidated mail outpatient pharmacy (CMOP) pilot. The sooner the pilot proves feasible, the sooner DOD can begin to realize the financial and quality of care benefits associated with the transfer of its refill workload. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-588/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-588.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-588/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-588.pdf GAO-01-588 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-588 Other Written Product GAO-01-588; DOD and VA Pharmacy: Progress and Remaining Challenges in Jointly Buying and Mailing Out Drugs; Brand name specifications Defense procurement Drugs Health care cost control Interagency relations Managed health care Pharmaceutical industry DOD TRICARE Program Public Law 97-174 Public Law 102-585 Public Law 106-65 Public Law 106-117 Public Law 106-398 Public Law 106-419