Expanding pharmacist role key to better outcomes

LAS VEGAS — The role of the pharmacist in the U.S. healthcare system has expanded beyond dispensing to include vaccinations and medication therapy management, and that role could expand further with pharmacy provider status on the horizon. That was the subject of a CE session at Good Neighbor Pharmacy’s ThoughtSpot 2015, during which the American Pharmacists Association’s Vice President Professional Affairs Anne Burns outlined the ways that the changing role can provide opportunities for both pharmacists and patients.

One of the biggest challenges facing pharmacists today that Burns outlined in her CE session, titled “National Initiatives to Advance Pharmacists’ Patient Care Services,” is the need for pharmacists to be recognized as providers under Medicare Part B. Currently, legislation is working its way through the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate that would include pharmacists as providers under Medicare Part B, which would mean that pharmacists could practice at the top of their license, filling chronic disease management roles in medically underserved areas.

Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, pharmacists have found the traditional fee-for-service model changing as the Department of Health and Human Services is emphasizing a pay-for-performance model, putting quality of care above the number of scripts filled. And while this change is substantial, it presents an important opportunity for community pharmacies to provide care that can diversify revenue sources and opportunities.

“What we’re promoting is that access to health care is a real issue for patients and pharmacists can help; people on complex medications benefit from pharmacists' services,” Burns said. “When pharmacists are on a patient’s healthcare team, costs go down and quality improves, and while successful passage of these two bills is a priority for our profession, it is critical for our patients.”

Especially given the growing cost of chronic disease (which the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease found constitutes more than 75% of healthcare spending) and the cost of medication nonadherence (estimated by the New England Healthcare institute to be $300 billion), pharmacists are uniquely positioned and willing to provide solutions to a strained healthcare system.

“There is a plethora of different services that community pharmacies can think about implementing that can provide value to the system,” Burns said. “Starting with immunizations and medication administration and med sync, which I consider … [to be] things that can be implemented within normal models, and then moving through the continuum ... to more complicated services, like MTM and disease management.”

As back-to-school season kicks into full gear, immunizations in particular are a focus of many community pharmacies around the country. AmerisourceBergen’s Global Sourcing and Manufacturing team is working to ensure that Good Neighbor Pharmacy members will be able to provide the necessary services in terms of vaccination and beyond, the company said.

“Good Neighbor Pharmacy members and community pharmacies need to be able to practice at the very top of their license,” Peyton Howell, Executive Vice President and President of AmerisourceBergen’s Global Sourcing and Manufacturer Relations division, told Drug Store News. “And that to us means making sure they have access to the product to do that. That means a full suite of all types of vaccines, a wide range to preventive vaccines as well as some of the new vaccines that are coming out, a wide range of specialty products ... and products that are designed to treat specific acute diseases, as well as chronic diseases.”

Howell also shared with Drug Store News that AmerisourceBergen’s priority is making sure that pharmacists are equipped to deal with the changing face of health care, and are ready if provider status is achieved and community pharmacies become the front lines of chronic disease management and MTM.

“This is essential when you look at the healthcare landscape,” she said. “We're going to need pharmacists that can serve patients across that patient life cycle and continue to be able to make sure that they have access to changing needs as new treatments come out.”