Celebrating AmCare clinical pharmacy innovations and pharmacists across the country
What part does your pharmacy team play in your patients’ “stories?” If you don’t know the answer, that’s a problem.
What on earth do we mean by stories? Well, when pharmacists contribute to the accuracy of clinical documentation including accurate medication histories, diagnoses and disease complexity, it not only helps physicians form accurate care plans but tells the appropriate financial “story.” These care plans are the backbone of how value-based networks get paid.
In this month’s Collaborative Practice, we focus on the revenue landscape of pharmacist-led clinical work along with the “extreme sport” of lowering costs throughout healthcare.
All the best –
The Team @ RxLive
Finance and reimbursement in value-based pharmacy
Bonnie Kirschenbaum, a recognized industry leader in forging effective alliances between hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies and distributors and has spoken extensively in these areas as well as written columns on finance and reimbursement that have had a positive influence on national pharmacy practice.
Watch the full interview – and learn how safely zipline between the mountaintops of pharmacy and finance.
And if you’d like to join the conversation, please feel free to get in touch.
RxLive’s webinar series
Eager to learn more after Bonnie’s interview? Explore the Value Expansion webinar archives.
The case for pharmacist intervention
In each edition of The Collaborative Practice, we highlight one anonymized patient case from a pharmacist in our network. The goal? Illustrate the value of pharmacist interventions and the benefits they deliver throughout the healthcare ecosystem. Here’s our case for this month…
Patient case: Chronic kidney disease and diabetes
- Recently, one of our pharmacists met with a 69-year-old male with type 2 diabetes (T2D) with retinopathy and neuropathy, hypertension (HTN), chronic kidney disease (CKD), obstructive sleep apnea, hyperlipidemia, and back pain: Current medications: metformin ER 500 mg 2 tablets daily, glipizide 10 mg twice daily, losartan 50 mg daily, and amlodipine 10 mg daily
- Blood pressure: <130/80 mmHG
- Labs: eGFR 32 ml/min, HbA1c 7.2%
The pharmacist recommended the addition of Jardiance 10 mg daily. This recommendation was based on the 2020 KDIGO guidelines and the 2023 ADA Standards of Care in Diabetes which state that glycemic management should include lifestyle management, first-line treatment with metformin and a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor (SGLT2i) for those at high risk of ASCVD and/or CKD with >20 ml/min eGFR < 60 ml/min. Although an SGLT2i has weaker effects on HbA1c for those with advanced CKD, they significantly reduce CKD progression and reduce cardiovascular risks.
Stories we’re following
From consumer preferences for value-based care to Medicare price negotiations, here are five topics we’re following this month:
Consumers want value-based care – when they know what it means
One New York City-based payer, EmblemHealth, found through a recent survey that 61 percent of consumer respondents say they prefer value-based care to fee-for-service models.
Evaluating pharmacist-driven CGM services in community, ambulatory care settings
New research published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association highlights potential benefits of pharmacist-led implementation of continuous glucose monitoring services.
The evolving role of the pharmacist in addressing the opioid epidemic
The pharmacotherapeutic expertise of pharmacists makes them vital in selecting and monitoring the right drugs, and optimizing treatments, that can help reduce opioid overdose deaths, which have recently numbered over 80,000 per year.
Stopping illegal online pharmacies with data & collaboration
Machine learning algorithms can help monitor for and detect priority keywords and product images to identify suspected counterfeit, or illegally diverted, pharmaceutical stock.
U.S. announces first drugs picked for Medicare price negotiations
As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the price negotiation program is projected to reduce insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs for many older Americans as well as save the government an estimated $98.5 billion over ten years.
Are you ready for some (fantasy) football?
Football season is underway. And that means a renewed focus on player safety and injury prevention (as in many industries this year, it appears AI plays a larger role than ever).
But if you’re one of the approximately 50 million adults in the United States invested in fantasy sports, that pretend team you manage might have some real-life health benefits.
According to Renee Miller, a professor in the department of brain and cognitive science at the University of Rochester in New York, the puzzle-like requirements of fantasy sports are key. And in the best cases, positive social interactions help release serotonin and oxytocin.
The result? Cognitive agility, a better mood, and less stress. But we hope you’ll be sure to make your way outside to enjoy cooler fall weather, too.
