Today, prescription medications represent the fastest-growing segment of health care costs — climbing nearly 400 percent between 1980 and 2005. Facing this challenge, four of Ohio's largest public health benefit purchasers formed the Rx Ohio Collaborative (RxOC) to change the face of prescription-drug health care in the state.

The RxOC's original participants are the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), The Ohio State University (OSU), School Employees Retirement System of Ohio (SERS) and State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS Ohio), who collectively provide health care coverage for more than 400,000 lives in Ohio, spending more than $1 billion on prescription drugs annually. During the next three years, the collaborative expects to reduce costs for its prescription benefit by 8-10 percent.

The Ohio State University is leading this effort to help Ohio public entities save money on their pharmacy benefit spending and to help reduce the budgetary requirements for these services, ultimately lessening the burden on the state's budget.