Since Congress passed healthcare reform legislation in March, Formulary has continued to ask for your feedback. Here is your response.
Since Congress passed healthcare reform legislation in March, Formulary has continued to ask for your feedback. The majority of you (72%) responded that the passage of healthcare reform legislation would significantly impact the activities/functions/role of the P&T Committee. Nineteen percent of respondents answered that it will have a modest impact and 9% of respondents believe it will have no impact.
Those of you who answered “Significant impact” indicated that you were concerned that reform would lead to government intrusion, P&T roles changing from clinical care to cost management, prescriber limitations, increased paper work, higher costs, and higher taxes. One respondent saw healthcare reform in a positive light.
Respondents who answered, “Significant impact” said:
“The whole emphasis of the reform bill is to cut costs. Therefore there will be more government intrusion into healthcare decision making.”
“P&T role will ultimately be cost management rather than clinical care. Formulary and cash will be kings.”
"1) Cost containment
2) Reimbursements
3) Restriction of availability
4) Prescriber limitation
5) Increased "paper work"
6) Increased oversight control"
“When the insurance mandate is implemented, hospitals should be able to fare better financially, as patients we currently treat without insurance, and therefore little or no income from their care, should then be covered in part or in total by insurance. I foresee more demand for healthcare services, once people who now have no insurance will be able to seek medical care before their illnesses become catastrophic. All in all, I see healthcare reform in a positive light. Now we must work on improving healthcare delivery and reducing costs by changing some of the ways we do things.”
One respondent who answered “Modest impact” elaborated:
“Decisions more heavily based on margin, or lack of negative margin, will occur. Every dollar will be watched until it all shakes out.”
One respondent who answered “No impact” explained further by saying:
“As an ICF-MR [intermediate care facility for people with mental retardation], our population would hardly be affected by the legislation.”
Coalition promotes important acetaminophen dosing reminders
November 18th 2014It may come as a surprise that each year Americans catch approximately 1 billion colds, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as many as 20% get the flu. This cold and flu season, 7 in 10 patients will reach for an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine to treat their coughs, stuffy noses, and sniffles. It’s an important time of the year to remind patients to double check their medicine labels so they don’t double up on medicines containing acetaminophen.
Support consumer access to specialty medications through value-based insurance design
June 30th 2014The driving force behind consumer cost-sharing provisions for specialty medications is the acquisition cost and not clinical value. This appears to be true for almost all public and private health plans, says a new report from researchers at the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design (V-BID Center) and the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC).
Management of antipsychotic medication polypharmacy
June 13th 2013Within our healthcare-driven society, the increase in the identification and diagnosis of mental illnesses has led to a proportional increase in the prescribing of psychotropic medications. The prevalence of mental illnesses and subsequent treatment approaches may employ monotherapy as first-line treatment, but in many cases the use of combination of therapy can occur, leading to polypharmacy.1 Polypharmacy can be defined in several ways but it generally recognized as the use of multiple medications by one patient and the most common definition is the concurrent use of five more medications. The presence of polyharmacy has the potential to contribute to non-compliance, drug-drug interactions, medication errors, adverse events, or poor quality of life.
Medical innovation improves outcomes
June 12th 2013I have been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer of the pancreas, a disease that’s long been considered not just incurable, but almost impossible to treat-a recalcitrant disease that some practitioners feel has given oncology a bad name. I was told my life would be measured in weeks.