Rescue the Rescuer: Supporting Mental Health Through Smart Pharmacy Benefits

Every day, our first responders face situations most of us can barely imagine. Paramedics, firefighters, police officers, and nurses operate in environments where split-second decisions can mean the difference between life and death. While they focus on saving others, who's looking out for them?

Our emergency service professionals face:

• Significantly higher rates of PTSD than the general population
• Increased risk of substance dependency
• Above-average divorce rates
• Elevated suicide rates
• Chronic stress-related health issues

These aren't just statistics – they're real challenges affecting real heroes who dedicate their lives to protecting our communities.

The phrase "rescue the rescuer" isn't just a catchphrase; it's a call to action.

Traditional approaches to supporting first responder mental health often stumble due to budget constraints. However, there's a solution that doesn't require additional funding:

pill Optimizing your pharmacy benefits pill

What many organizations and municipalities don't realize is that their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) might be quietly siphoning away funds that could be used for mental health support.

Here's what's really happening behind the scenes:

Understanding PBM Money-Making Tactics

1. Price Spreading Your organization could be losing $5-$25 per prescription through price spreading – where PBMs pocket the difference between what they pay pharmacies and what they charge you. For a department with hundreds of employees, this adds up to thousands of dollars that could be funding other programs.
2. Hidden Claims Processing Fees While you focus on supporting your first responders, some PBMs are quietly adding extra fees during claims processing, further depleting your healthcare budget.
3. The Rebate Shell Game PBMs often retain manufacturer rebates instead of passing them back to you. What is worse, is this creates a perverse incentive to prefer expensive medications that generate larger kickbacks – potentially affecting your employees' access to mental health and other medications.
4. Disguised Revenue Streams Watch out for creative terminology like "formulary placement fees" and "marketing credits" – these are often just rebates in disguise, another way PBMs extract value from your pharmacy benefit.
5. Brand Name Bias Some PBMs deliberately push brand-name drugs over cheaper generics simply because it's more profitable for them, not because it's better for your employees.

By reducing unnecessary pharmaceutical spending, municipalities can free up hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions as we have proved with Grand Rapids, MI.

The funds saved through these optimizations can enhance mental health support services, expand or create other social services that are needed.

You can transform your pharmacy benefits from a cost center into a strategic tool for supporting employee wellbeing.

Investing in Those Who Invest in Us

When we not only support but enhance the mental and overall health of our first responders, we're not just helping individuals – we're strengthening our entire emergency response system. Healthier, more resilient first responders provide better care to our communities.

Through smart pharmacy benefit management, we can help "rescue the rescuer" without straining already tight budgets. It's not just about saving money – it's about saving those who save others.

Contact DisclosedRx today to learn how we can help your organization better support its heroes through optimized pharmacy benefit management.