Action changes things.
The high price of prescriptions at the pharmacy counter isn’t the only drug cost problem in the U.S. Illness and death resulting from the wrong prescription, the wrong dose, skipped doses or new medication-related issues—what the authors call “non-optimized medication therapy”—cost an estimated $528 billion a year. That represents 16 percent of total U.S. health care expenditures, according to research published March 26, 2018 in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy. The recommended solution is comprehensive medication management, described and explored in this resource guide developed by the Medication Management Task Force of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative.
We invite you to offer evidence of work done to improve care through comprehensive medication management and team-based care. Join us as we explore the evidence around expanding roles and functions within team-based, collaborative, patient-centered care and new ways to ensure access to safe and effective medication use.
Why this, and why now? Consider these 7 Things:
- We are on the cusp of a new era of specialty medications and gene therapies that will transform care, calling for appropriate use of companion and complementary diagnostics for medications.
- In less than a decade there will be a shortage of primary care physicians, which could further fragment care.
- We have not closed the feedback loop between specialists and primary care providers relating to medication use.
- There are more medications than ever, and FDA is approving them at a faster pace.
- Prescription drug costs are rising by double digit rates.
- Pharmacogenomics informs which combination of medication and dosage is most effective and safe for a particular patient.
- The 21st Century Cures Act is accelerating the discovery, development, and delivery of cures, allocating billions to the National Institutes of Health for precision medicine and biomedical research and more widely opening the door for more personalized medicine.
All the resources here are for your download and use. We welcome everyone to use the videos, reports, blogs, issue briefs and news briefs to educate and inform the populations you serve.
