For employers concerned about increasing pharmacy plan costs, USI recommends excluding "lifestyle" drugs from coverage, resulting in savings of 3% to 5% on pharmacy plan costs.

We’ve estimated the financial impact for you. Feel free to update the assumptions. 

  • Focuses health plan expenses on medically necessary treatments
  • Encourages members to choose over-the-counter (OTC) equivalents instead of prescription drugs to treat allergeries and gastrointestinal ailments

Lifestyle drugs, loosely defined as drugs designed to improve quality of life, function, or appearance, including:

  • Weight loss
  • Erectile dysfunction
  • Acne, skin aging, and hair loss

Over-the counter drugs such as:

  • Allergy drugs (Claritin, Flonase, Allegra, etc.)
  • GI drugs (Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid, etc.)

The average annual Wholesale Acquisition Cost of recent weight loss drugs in high demand is approximately $14,200.