October is American Pharmacist’s Month and a time to celebrate the work we do providing pharmaceutical care to the patients we serve. As a cofounder of RxLive I am proud to be in a leadership position during a time of transformation in healthcare. Slowly, there is a gathering movement towards value-based care models. Value-based care is a shift away from traditional fee-for-service reimbursement, where healthcare workers are paid a set fee to deliver a service. Instead, in a value-based reimbursement model the focus is on improving the health-related outcomes of the patients being managed. When an organization does well and improves the overall health metrics of a patient population, then they are reimbursed more for the care they delivered. On the flip side, if a patient population does poorly, the reimbursement is paired back. These are known as risk-based contracts.
In a nation where pharmacists are still not considered providers or qualified healthcare professionals, value-based care models offer pharmacist teams an opportunity to prove their worth in the improvement of patient care.
RxLive has built our business on this principle. We use analytics to identify gaps in patient care that need addressing to improve health metrics of empaneled patient populations. Then we work to actively engage those patients that are not meeting targeted goals. By focusing on areas that a pharmacist is well-positioned to address and solve, we can measure the impact of the interventions we are making in the lives of the patients we are serving.
Each week at RxLive we share an outstanding patient survey response with the whole team, acknowledging the pharmacist who provided the patient care. This past week we received this patient comment, which is reflective of the sorts of comments we get each and every week at RxLive. “You provide an important service in looking at the patient’s meds which can span many Docs / Specialists that only focus on their meds. Holistic view of patient. Plus awareness of different meds / formats. I appreciate the service and the professionalism of your team.” DL, Oregon.
As we celebrate American Pharmacist’s Month, I want to recognize the excellent work that our team of pharmacists at RxLive is doing to further our mission of delivering meaningful interactions between patients, pharmacists and healthcare providers through cutting-edge technology and clinical guidance. We are making progress each day in advancing our vision of improving healthcare by leveraging the value of clinical pharmacists.
