As health system margins tighten and the shift to value-based care continues, health system executives are increasingly looking to pharmacy leaders to reduce costs, while ensuring best-in-class patient care.

However, traditional cost-cutting levers are no longer proving sufficient for managing rising pharmacy spend. To achieve additional savings, leaders must focus more acutely on reining in physician prescribing variation.

System P&T committees can serve as the foundation for these care variation reduction efforts. However, though 75% of organizations have a system-level committee, many fall short in realizing their full potential to reduce unwarranted spend. These groups often focus their resources in the wrong parts of the P&T process, leading to missed opportunities to reduce costs and improve care.

This publication outlines 15 steps to optimize the P&T process. While designed for pharmacy and P&T leaders, this publication will also be useful for executives seeking to understand the value of system P&T committees and their power to reduce system costs.