Spending on prescription drugs by employerscontinues to rise sharply. At the same time, employer plans arerequiring greater cost-sharing on the part of employees, thusreducing the impact on employers to a degree.

A wide-ranging study by Buck Consultants reviewed an array ofdrug-related insurance issues. When the focus turned to costs andcost control, the trend was clear: Employersare shelling out more for prescription drugs, but they're requiringplan participants to pay more upfront in premium contributions andmore downstream in higher co-pays.

For instance, respondents were given the option to select fromvarious ranges of participation contribution and cost-sharing. Thelargest segment — 29 percent — said their participants contributed21 percent to 25 percent in 2014. Last year, the largest segmentidentified the range as 16 percent to 20 percent.

The same was true of cost-sharing, where 74 percent saidcost-sharing targets were either in the 16 percent to 20 percentrange or above. The percent of those who chose a range below 15percent fell from 29 percent last year to 26 percent this timearound.

Cost escalation’s quantitative impact could be seen most clearlyin the small segment of employers who reported their drug costs hadreached or exceeded 30 percent of total plan payouts. The numberdoubled from last year, from 2.3 percent to nearly 5 percent thisyear. The percentage reporting spending at least 16 percent of plandollars on drugs rose from 71 percent to 77 percent.

Buck reported that fixed dollar copays continue to be popularand that employers are attempting to deal with the escalating costof specialty drugs by creating new plan tiers.However, Buck said an alarming number of respondents didn't closelytrack their specialty drug costs.

“With specialty drug costs showing no signs of decreasing, wecould easily see the average percentage of total health care spendemployers are paying for pharmacy increase from 15 to 20 percent,”said Paul Burns, principal, Buck Consultants at Xerox. “Consideringthe importance of managing specialty drug therapies now and in thefuture, the percentage of employers not knowing their costs is toohigh.”