Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Eric Bosshard.
Eric Bosshard - Cleveland Research Company
Good morning. Can you talk a little bit more about the progress and penetration you were making with maintenance choice and whatever other quantification you can give to clarify the success that you see you are having with that effort?
Thomas M. Ryan
Well, the fact that we have 270 clients signed up for it and you remember in the past, Eric, I talked about the fact that some companies, benefit managers were a little hesitant to try something new. Now I think that it’s been out in the marketplace, they are realizing from talking to peers and others, consultants, that in fact they are actually -- the payer is actually saving money, right? The payer saves money, the client, the participant saves money and all in all, it’s a good program. So the fact that we added 70 since our May meeting, 70 more clients and as I said, 20% to 25% of those were new clients and we are winning clients because of it. And it’s affecting -- obviously it’s affecting our pharmacy comps. You can see almost 200 basis points just from maintenance choice.
So we’ve never -- and basically think about it, any time we’ve -- you look at mandatory mail that’s been out in the market for 10 plus years, it really never got over 20% and with this, we are at 10%. We’ve gotten great uptake already and I think we expect more to come.
Eric Bosshard - Cleveland Research Company
Within the clients that have adopted this, do you have any math on the increased mail penetration with the business, I guess maintenance choice [in three] should drive greater mail utilization, whether it’s --
Thomas M. Ryan
Well, you can see our growth at 10% when you combine it, right? I mean, you can see the growth when you combine mail and our 90-day scripts at retail. I mean, it’s growing significantly and if some of the -- an employer has a mail penetration of 20% or 30% and they change plan design, they typically will drive penetration up in the 50% to 60% range and that’s why they are saving money and that’s why it’s good for the plan, the payer, and the patient, and then us.
Eric Bosshard - Cleveland Research Company
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »





