Ohio pharmacists spearhead one-on-one initiative

COLUMBUS, Ohio Ohio pharmacists are trying to convince insurers that paying them to have one-on-one time with chronic disease patients and people on multiple medications will improve health and save money, according to published reports.

The success of a 10-year effort in Asheville, N.C., that includes pharmacist care for patients with chronic problems such as diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels is one of the main arguments the pharmacists are using to get the initiative passed in Ohio.

The goal is to persuade the insurers and others to pay pharmacists for the care and coordination they’ll offer to these patients, who may be seeing multiple doctors and going to multiple drugstores for their medications.

A recent study in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association reported the positive medical and economic outcomes for 600 people with high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol who participated in the pharmacist medication management and were followed for six years.

“I look at my own parents, and one doctor doesn’t know what the other has done,” said Debra Parker, an assistant professor at the University of Findlay School of Pharmacy. The university is the main mover behind the Health Care Summit on Pharmacist Provided Patient Care, which is the name of the pharmacist movement. Pharmacists are trained to understand the actions and interactions of drugs in patients, Parker said, adding that doctors have their own specialties and aren’t necessarily familiar with the drugs prescribed by different specialists.