Specialty Pharmacy Services a Focus of Kaiser Permanente-Evernorth Collaboration

Evernorth, Cigna Corporation’s health services business, and Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s leading integrated health care organizations, announced a new, five-year collaboration aimed at delivering increased convenience, affordability and expanded access to high-quality care for Kaiser Permanente members.

Initially, the agreement will focus on bringing greater convenience, affordability and access to Kaiser Permanente and its members in two areas: 1) access to Cigna’s PPO provider network for Kaiser Permanente members who need urgent or emergency care and are traveling outside of Kaiser Permanente’s service areas, and 2) specialty pharmacy services. The collaboration has the potential to extend in additional areas during the course of the agreement.

Beginning in August, Kaiser Permanente commercial HMO and exclusive provider organization (EPO) members who need urgent care when they are traveling outside of areas served by Kaiser Permanente will have access to Cigna’s national PPO network of more than one million physicians and other providers.

This will significantly expand Kaiser Permanente’s ability to provide more affordable and convenient access to valuable, high-quality health care and services for current and future members.

In the area of specialty pharmacy services, the agreement seeks to deliver overall value and savings to Kaiser Permanente and its commercial plan members. Accredo, Evernorth’s specialty pharmacy, will become Kaiser Permanente’s preferred external pharmacy for limited distribution drugs, and Evernorth’s CuraScript SD will be a preferred distributor for purchasing certain other specialty products.

The partnership takes effect immediately, as the two organizations continue to explore additional ways that they can work together to address cost and access over the next several years.

Takeaway: Evernorth is replacing Kaiser’s current PBM, MedImpact, for its specialty pharmacy business for specific limited distribution drugs