Purchaser Survey Shows: Claims Access Drives More Cost-Saving Strategies
Washington Health Alliance purchaser members joined 408 employers nationwide in the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions’ 2026 Pulse of the Purchaser survey. The clearest finding this year: employers with full access to medical and pharmacy claims data used more high-value purchasing strategies on average than those without it.
Prescription drugs sit at the center of the story. Employers named drug prices their top cost threat (77%), ahead of high-cost claims and hospital prices, and pharmacy now accounts for more than a fifth of total health spend. Survey respondents strongly favored PBM reform (87.6% called it helpful). And 43% of employers are considering a PBM change in the next one to three years, a share that rises to more than half among those still contracted with the “Big Three.” Nearly one in four Big Three clients admit they don’t know what’s in their own PBM contract.
For WHA, the findings are clear: employers manage better what they can see, and they see further when working collaboratively. Claims transparency, whether through the APCD or PBM contracts, turns concern into informed purchasing power.
Read the full National Alliance findings here: Employers with Claims Data Access Take More Action on Healthcare Costs