Practice Transformation
What’s next? David Nash, MD, MBA, recently identified several trends to watch, reports MedPage Today. One is personalized medicine. Soon, it will be possible to take a “buccal smear, get your genetic makeup, and make a prediction about your own health, even in the primary care doctor’s office.” A related trend: the convergence of artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, machine learning and population health intelligence. Then, there’s the rise of the “payvider.” “We’re going to see …Cigna, Aetna, Humana, Anthem and all the rest reaching out and connecting with provider groups in ways we could never have imagined.” Nash is founding dean emeritus of the College of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University. (MedPage Today)
Forget comprehensive medication management: Among adults 50-80 taking at least two prescription medications, only 24% had ever had a comprehensive mediation review (CMR) with their pharmacist, according to the National Poll on Healthy Aging conducted by the University of Michigan. The rate for those taking five or more prescription medications is 29%. Of those who never had a CMR, 86% were unaware that their insurance might cover one, including 85% of those enrolled in Medicare Part D. (Helio; poll results)
Evidence & Innovation
Cannabis use is growing among older adults (65+), according to research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; 15% of the patients surveyed had used cannabis within the past three years; about half of those use it regularly. Most use it for medical purposes—pain, sleep disturbances, anxiety, etc. “The findings demonstrate the need for the clinical workforce to become aware of cannabis use by seniors and to gain awareness of both the benefits and risks of cannabis use in their patient population,” says Alison Moore, MD, senior author and chief of the Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, UC San Diego School of Medicine. (Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; announcement)
New research finds that 27% of U.S. personal health care expenses can be attributed to 84 modifiable health risks. That amounted to $730.4 billion in 2016 spending. The researchers published their findings in The Lancet Public Health. In fact, just five modifiable risk factors—high BMI, high systolic blood pressure, high fasting plasma glucose, dietary risks and tobacco smoke—accounted for the most attributable spending. “Moving forward, it’s crucial to focus on preventing and managing these key risks before they turn into costly diseases, so that more people have the chance to live a long and healthy life,” says Joseph Dieleman, PhD, senior author on the study. (HealthLeaders Media; Lancet Public Health)
Policy Solutions
Insulin prices are more than eight times higher in the United States than in 32 high-income comparison nations combined, according to a RAND Corporation study. This ranges from 3.8 times higher than Chile to 27.7 times higher than Turkey. Closer to home, they were 6.3 times higher than Canada. Even accounting for rebates and discounts, U.S. consumers are still likely to pay four times the average paid in other high-income nations. The study was sponsored by the Health and Human Services Office for Planning and Evaluation. (HealthLeaders Media; RAND)
Collaborating with Chicago leaders and community organizations, Walgreens is expanding community-focused pharmacy and health care initiatives, beginning in the city’s underserved neighborhoods. Among the initiatives: diabetes outreach; an effort with the American Heart Association to reduce chronic disease and health disparities; and affordable access to medication. (Becker’s Hospital Review; Walgreen’s announcement)
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In Case You Missed It!
Helping Employers Avoid Waste in Pharmacy Benefits Spend: The Role of Comprehensive Medication Management
Friday, October 30, 2020 | 1- 2 p.m. EDT
Cheryl Larson, president and CEO of Midwest Business Group on Health and GTMRx Employer Toolkit Taskforce member, discusses how comprehensive medication management (CMM) can strengthen employer health plans. Learn about how the current model of paying for low value medications no longer works and how employers, as health plan fiduciaries, can utilize innovative strategies such as CMM to provide high value care for plan participants while protecting plan assets. Understand how CCM helps employers to saves lives, improve employee productivity and enhance clinical outcomes.
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HC21 8th Annual Pharma U: Using Clinical Pharmacists for Better Care and Better Costs in Complex Patients
Thursday, November 12, 2020 10 – 11 AM EST
Employers demand high value care–the right drug, right patient, right time, right cost. Join HC21 for this online event to discuss how employers can leverage CMM to Get The Medications Right.
October 9, 2020 GTMRx Executive Roundtable
At the GTMRx Institute, we recognize that we cannot achieve our goals for medication management reform without a team-based approach which must include a viable primary care foundation—supported by payment reform that rewards inter-professional teams, utilizes effective and smart use of health IT at the point of care and is personalized through the use of companion and complementary diagnostics.
The virtual event will bring in speakers to illuminate the crisis we face with
- a crumbling primary care infrastructure,
- the importance of payment and policy change to achieve value,
- the way forward in practice transformation and
- the need for point-of-care access to information enabled by health IT (companion and complementary diagnostic test results, clinical information needed to evaluate therapy effectiveness and/or changes in needed therapy) available for use by all team members.
Featuring Susan Dentzer, MPH; Patrick Conway, MD; Mary R. McClurg, Pharm.D.; Mark Loafman, MD, MPH; Ann Greiner and Annette Dubard, MD, MPH. Find more information here.
CMM offers reduced costs, improves access to care, provides better care and enhances provider work life. These results are outlined in “The Outcomes of Implementing and Integrating Comprehensive Medication Management in Team-Based Care: A Review of the Evidence on Quality, Access and Costs,” updated in June 2020. The evidence document was prepared by GTMRx workgroup members, M. Shawn McFarland, PharmD, FCCP, BCACP, national clinical pharmacy practice program manager, clinical practice integration and model advancement, clinical pharmacy practice office, pharmacy benefits management services, Veterans Health Administration; and Marcia Buck, PharmD, FCCP, FPPAG, BCPPS, director, clinical practice advancement, American College of Clinical Pharmacy. (GTMRx Institute)
Hosted by the GTMRx Institute’s executive director and co-founder, Katherine H. Capps, Voices of Change features leaders who have knowledge, experience and ideas to solve this urgent need to get the medications right. Did you miss the most recent episode?
Episodes feature:
- Liz Fowler, JD, Ph.D., executive vice president for programs, The Commonwealth Fund
- Amy Gutierrez, Pharm.D.,senior vice president and chief pharmacy officer, Kaiser Permanente
- Amanda Brummel, PharmD, BCACP, vice president, Clinical Ambulatory Pharmacy Services, Fairview Pharmacy Services
- Orsula V. Knowlton, PharmD, MBA, president and chief marketing & new business development officer, Tabula Rasa HealthCare
- Anand Parekh, MD, chief medical advisor, Bipartisan Policy Center
- Paul Grundy, MD, president, GTMRx; chief transformation officer, Innovaccer
AmazonSmile is an easy way for 0.5% of your qualified purchases go to the GTMRx Foundation at no cost to you. And signing up is simple—go to smile.amazon.com and select “Get the Medications Right Foundation” as your charity of choice. If you prefer to directly donate instead, you can do so here.
Adding the foundation on AmazonSmile will help us continue to provide no cost educational webinars, issue briefs, weekly news briefs and promote the need for transformation of our current system of medication use through social media campaigns.
