In response to the economic downturn, this year’s survey included new questions on concerns about the affordability of prescription drugs.

The majority of U.S. employers responding to the survey are concerned about the affordability of prescription drugs for their active employees and retirees as shown in Figure 6.

Table 12 lists the steps employers report they are taking to make prescription drugs more affordable. Twenty-six percent of the employers providing action steps supplied more than one activity. It should be noted that 29.4% of employers who are concerned about affordability but not yet taking action took time to manually key in a “don’t know” or “no action yet” response which supports the finding of growing attention to prescription drug affordability for those consumers with prescription drug coverage. The majority of employers taking action are focusing on employee/retiree education about the drug benefit program. There were specific mentions of encouraging the use of generic drugs, mail-order utilization, accessing in-network pharmacies, and taking preventive drugs when medically necessary.

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