Journal of managed care pharmacy : JMCP
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Total knee replacement (TKR), a last resort for treating knee pain due to osteoarthritis (OA), is not always medically indicated or preferred by many patients. Hylan G-F 20 is a cross-linked hyaluronan derivative approved for the treatment of pain due to OA of the knee after other conservative approaches have failed. ⋯ In patients who are candidates for TKR, the need for TKR can be delayed with hylan G-F 20 when used for the treatment of OA knee pain.
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The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 requires drug plan sponsors to provide medication therapy management programs (MTMPs) to beneficiaries with (1) drug expenditures above $4,000, (2) multiple comorbidities, and (3) multiple prescription drugs. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is a national probability survey conducted annually by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Center for Health Statistics to provide nationally representative estimates of health care use, expenditures, sources of payments, and insurance coverage for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. MEPS comprises 3 components, including the household component (HC) in which households and individuals within households are sampled. The medical provider component (MPC) supplements the HC by contacting providers (hospitals, outpatient offices, home health agencies, and pharmacies) reported in the HC, and the insurance component collects data on health insurance plans and is separate from the HC. ⋯ MEPS survey respondents aged 65 years or older with drug expenditures exceeding the MTMP threshold of $4,000 per year obtain substantially more drugs and have a higher disease burden than those with lower drug expenditures. Characteristics other than drug use, such as having functional limitations or requiring help with activities of daily living, can be used to identify potential MTMP candidates.
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The addition of a long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) to an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) for patients with moderate or severe persistent asthma improves outcomes such as pulmonary function, reduces exacerbations requiring oral steroids, and reduces use of rescue beta-agonists. ⋯ Overall, the addition of salmeterol as a fixed combination with fluticasone or with beclomethasone as separate inhalers was associated with a reduction in the ARE rate. Patients who received FSA were more likely to be exposed to a higher dose of ICS compared with those who received BSA. Differences in resource utilization may be attributed to how these drugs are prescribed and taken by patients in a real-practice (naturalistic) setting rather than to any inherent difference between the drugs (i.e., higher ICS dose rather than greater efficacy).
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Upon signing the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) on December 8, 2003, President Bush set in motion the greatest change in the Medicare program since its inception in 1965. MMA was implemented on January 1, 2006, and established the Medicare prescription drug benefit, also known as Medicare Part D. Community and managed care pharmacists were essential to the success in 2006 of this new benefit program with 33 million beneficiaries. Pharmacists will continue to be an essential and integral part of the continued success of the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2007, in part by being informed about the policies and regulations. ⋯ Important policy updates to the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2007 include the subject areas of: (1) beneficiary enrollment, (2) transition medication fills, (3) standard benefit, (4) cost sharing, particularly for those who qualify for LIS, (5) enhancement of the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Finder, (6) beneficiary complaints, (7) discontinuation of coverage for erectile dysfunction drugs, (8) vaccine coverage by the Medicare prescription drug benefit, (9) syringes in long-term care, (10) donation of unused medications by beneficiaries, (11) implementation of the NPI, and (12) preventive services covered by the Medicare program.
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is chronic and debilitating, afflicts patients in the prime of their lives, and requires costly, decades-long disease management. MS prevalence is increasing, and treatment with new drug therapies is expensive. ⋯ Pharmacy costs accounted for 65% of total MS-related medical costs in 2004 and 75% of total costs for the subset of MS patients(58%) who received at least 1 DMD.